Trump's next attack on democracy: mass voter suppression - by Russ Feingold

[kpete]

Trump's next attack on democracy: mass voter suppression
Russ Feingold
The Trump administration’s ‘election integrity’ commission is declaring war on voters – our democratic legitimacy be damned
Russ Feingold is a former US senator for Wisconsin


............



The litany of research on voting in recent years has failed to come up with but a handful of voter fraud cases. On the other hand, voter suppression techniques, such as those employed by the Republican party, effectively disenfranchise scores of voters across the country. If the real goal of the administration is election integrity, the stated objective from day one should have been to maximize voter participation.

Rather than target minority voters with a modern gloss on McCarthyism, we should be prioritizing a 21st-century Voting Rights Act to protect voting rights and increase access to the ballot box.

Rather than voter ID laws that disenfranchise certain demographics, a new Voting Rights Act could set a national ID standard, granting maximum flexibility to voters. It could also ban felony disenfranchisement in national elections and require publication of new electoral changes to help educate voters.

The options are there to strengthen our democracy and truly protect “one person, one vote”. Instead, this commission appears intent on nationalizing the Republican party’s strategy of “one Anglo-Saxon, financially successful person, one vote”.



the rest:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/30/trumps-attack-democracy-mass-voter-suppression?CMP=share_btn_tw

[oasis]

1. Wake up America and pay close attention. (eom)

[Not Ruth]

2. Can anyone explain any specific differences between "voter id laws" and "a national id standard"?

[Not Ruth]

4. Are both REALID?

Which many states do not have?

[Not Ruth]

10. A new national ID standard is potentially problematic

Anything like this is not going to be a piece of paper with your name stamped on it. It would be chipped, hologrammed, have all your biometrics, citizenship, party affiliation, residency, voting history, contact info, and follow you from birth to death with all of your data in a one hackable server. It would be used for more than voting.

It would be dehumanizing.

[bora13]

3. just a few words from SK

tRump explained:

"the face of a man who has died deep in sin and now stands hard by hell’s smoking side door."

S.K. "It"

[dalton99a]

5. Kick.

[zentrum]

6. Gotta get Russ

...back in Congress.

[AllaN01Bear]

7. supported by the koch bros

[dlk]

8. It's Not Just Trump-It's The Republican Party Stacking the Deck

Trump may the leader of the Republican party, however, it is the entire party doing it's level best to stack the deck with voter suppression. They have been perpetrating this scheme for quite some time.

[diane in sf]

11. Not scores, more likely hundreds of thousands to some millions are prevented from voting