There has been a great deal of talk about voter id laws recently. Lets review our history of voting laws in the U.S. At the founding of the country, most states limited the right to vote to property-owning white males. Over time, the right to vote was formally granted to racial minorities, women, and youth. However, throughout the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, Southern states passed Jim Crow laws to suppress poor and racial minority voters; among other things, such laws included poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses. Most of these voter suppression tactics were made illegal after the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But last year (2013) our supreme court invalidated key parts of that Voting Rights Act claiming that it is no longer needed because racism is a thing of the past in the U.S. (Yeah, right!) Contemporary voter suppression techniques include voter ID laws, voter caging, intimidation of voters at polling places, and felony disenfranchisement. Research has shown that suppression of voters has become an integral part of politics for both liberals and conservatives in the USA and across the Western World. When political entities advocate for voter suppression policies, they typically use positive language such as voter security and anti-voter fraud, to justify their actions; but there is little evidence to prove that voter fraud is a significant problem in the United States. Whats the REAL motivation for these new attempts at voter id laws? Well, you might want to read the following: thedailybeast/articles/2013/08/28/republicans-admit-voter-id-laws-are-aimed-at-democratic-voters.html
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 17:17:33 +0000
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