Democrats to State Secretaries: Keep Voting Requirements Loose

Hands Off Ballot Boxes in South Carolina! The Leftist Neocon wing of the GOP is rigging them just fine without you!

Written by R. Cort Kirkwood
Tuesday, 08 November 2011 15:02

The radical Left in Congress is pressing Secretaries of State across the nation to oppose state changes to election laws that require voters to prove they are who they claim to be and are eligible to cast a ballot.

Nearly 200 Democrats, led by Maryland leftist Rep. Steny Hoyer, the Democrat Whip, signed a letter that went to Secretaries across the country.

States that pass photo-identification and other laws, Hoyer disingenuously argues, are “suppressing” votes and undermining “democracy,” at least as he and some of the most radical Congressmen define “democracy.”

The Letter

The missive begins innocently enough, with a warning that bipartisanship against “voter suppression” is dying because of evil Republicans, although the letter, of course, does not forthrightly finger the pachyderm party.

The 196 Democrats wrote to “express our collective concern that the bipartisan consensus and partnership between all levels of government, which for decades has been a central principle of election administration, is deteriorating.”

Throughout the years, the Voting Rights Act and strenuous efforts of election officials nationwide have secured the right to vote for all, the letter said, noting that progress in voting rights, by which the Democrats mean ensuring that blacks in the South could vote.

“But a disturbing trend is emerging,” the letter continues, noting the many states that are passing voter ID laws to stop fraud, particularly by illegal aliens. Those most important of those laws require a photo ID to vote and proof of citizenship.

Election legislation and administration appear to be increasingly the product of partisan plays. Election officials are seen as partisan combatants, rather than stewards of our democracy. It is critical for our democracy that this does not continue. Voting hours, voting sites, identification requirements, voter registration regulation and access to mail ballots should not be used as weapons to achieve a preferred electoral outcome.

Repeating a Democrat theme, the letter urges the secretaries “to put partisan considerations aside and serve as advocates for enfranchisement,” then actually says that "history has taught us that our democracy has suffered far more from elected officials who chose to deny some of our citizens the opportunity to vote than from any other cause. There is no greater threat to our democracy than a diminished belief that the rules are fair and fairly administered.”

Actually, history hasn’t taught us that, and many threats to our democracy are “greater” than stopping vote fraud. But the letter goes on:

Whether it is an elderly woman unable to locate her birth certificate for purposes of establishing her U.S. citizenship on election day or a college student whose school-issued identification is not among the IDs deemed acceptable for voting or a disabled veteran whose local polling place has not yet been made accessible, public officials on all levels of government should be striving to facilitate their right to vote, not make it more difficult.

We stand willing and ready to work in a bipartisan manner with our Republican counterparts in the U.S. Congress, as well as with state and local officials across the country, to guarantee to every citizen the right to vote and the certainty that every citizen’s vote will be counted.

The “elderly woman” to whom the letter refers is, presumably, a 96-year-old black lady in Tennessee, but it does not appear the Democrats can find many real Americans or eligible voters unable to cast ballots as long as they can present valid ID. A key voting bloc for Democrats is minorities, so raising the issue of racial discrimination in voting is an unsurprising tactic. The Democrats may well face a shellacking in the next election, and indeed Hoyer mentioned 2012 in the first line of his remarks about the issue.

Said Hoyer, “A year from now, millions of Americans will head to the polls to exercise their most fundamental right — the right to vote.”

Unfortunately, in states across the country, partisan measures have been adopted that would make it more difficult for nearly five million voters, particularly the poor, young people, the elderly, and minorities, to register and vote Voter suppression has no place in our country. That’s why Democrats are sending a letter to Secretaries of State urging them to oppose these partisan efforts to hinder access to the ballot and urging them to work in a bipartisan way to ensure all Americans can exercise their constitutional right to be heard.

Photo ID Laws
For years, Democrats have been trying to make voting no different than purchasing a Coke at the 7-Eleven. Their main accomplishment, the so-called motor-voter law of 1933, has led to massive vote fraud, critics argue.

But with illegal aliens flooding the country, the GOP, which controls many state legislatures, is passing laws to ensure that only eligible voters cast ballots... finish reading at source