Toobin Calls Voter ID Laws ‘A Clear Attempt By Republicans To Stop Democrats From Voting

[cal04]

On April 28, the Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter ID law, which guards against supposed fraud by requiring voters to show identification. The decision came despite the fact that “the record contains no evidence of any such fraud actually occurring in Indiana at any time in its history” — and despite the fact the law tends to suppress voter turnout by minorities and poor people.

Commenting on the decision on last night’s “Bill Moyers Journal,” legal scholar Jeffery Toobin explained that the “real agenda” behind voter ID laws is “to help Republicans”:

I thought it was a bad decision, but a predictable one because it was a very clear attempt by Republicans to stop Democrats from voting. I don’t think there’s any doubt about what the motivation was of that law. … The real agenda was to help Republicans.

Watch it:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/24/toobin-voter-id/

Though the Court’s majority claimed the impact was nothing more than a “minor inconvenience” to voters, in fact there are as many as 21 million voting-age Americans without driver’s licenses. Thirteen percent of registered Indiana voters lack the documents needed to obtain state identification.

During the recent Indiana primary, a group of 12 nuns were turned away from the polls because they lacked a valid photo ID. One nun in Missouri said, “This is going to keep a lot of our loved ones from being able to vote.”

Moreover, the new law disenfranchised many out-of-state students attending private Indiana colleges, such as Notre Dame and DePauw, because “ID cards issued by private colleges don’t qualify under the state law.”

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Voter ID will cause enough of a dropoff in legitimate Democratic voting

to add 3 percent to the Republican vote.
http://www.truthaboutfraud.org/pdf/TruthAboutVoterFraud...

IMPORTANT POINTS:

1. Voter ID disenfranchises voters. At least 250,000 voters in MO will
not be able to vote if voter ID becomes law in that state. Last week,
Robin Carnahan estimated 650,000 would be disenfranchised. The point
to remember is that even ONE is too many.

2. There have been ZERO cases of voter fraud in KS or in MO EVER. I
only researched back 50 years though, so there may have been some
cases prior to the 1940s.

3. Not everyone has an ID or can easily get one. It is also expensive
by the time you obtain the supporting documentation. And remember
anytime you have to spend money to register to vote, that's a poll
tax. The only reason the Indiana voter ID law was approved by the US
Supreme Court is because the IDs are free.

4. Don't confuse voter fraud with registration fraud. The ACORN case
in MO that the Republicans keep talking about was a case of
registration fraud, not voter fraud. No one voted fraudulently, since
the system worked and caught the problem before election day.

5. The Republicans aren't going to give this up. Remember they can
gain 3% of the vote if voter ID becomes law.

6. The real problem is ELECTION FRAUD, which neither state legislature
has addressed.