Friday, September 21, 2012

New Voting Laws Get Democratic Organizers Fired Up

Volunteers have been flooding into offices set up by the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, some even traveling from out of state. Their motivation? They want to combat a new law rammed through the state Legislature by Republicans that asks all voters to show government-issued ID at the polls.
“It’s really lit a fire under a lot of people,” said Mark Nicastre, communications director for the state Democratic Party. “We’ve been very lucky to get probably three times the number of volunteers that we otherwise would have seen, and somewhere around six times the number of contributions.”
Republicans say new state laws that shorten early-voting periods, make it harder for third-party groups to register voters, or require voters to show photo ID at the polls are nothing more than reasonable precautions against voter fraud. But to Democrats, the laws are GOP attempts to make it more difficult for young people, minorities, and the elderly to cast their ballot—or, in other words, attempts to suppress the vote and sway the election.
In key states like Pennsylvania, Florida, and Ohio, new election laws pose a logistical challenge for Democrats but also offer political payoff: galvanized activists and a feeling that Republicans have unfairly targeted certain communities.
In Pennsylvania, Democrats and civil-rights groups have been contacting voters that may lack identification and driving citizens to government offices that issue the approved identification. “I think it’s actually going to drive up voter participation because of the legwork the Obama campaign, state organized labor, church groups, the NAACP and the state party—what we’re all doing,” said Jason Henry, campaign manager for state Senate candidate Kimberly Villella.
The ID law may not even survive to November. It’s been tied up in litigation for months, and on Tuesday the Pennsylvania Supreme Court returned the case to a lower court for additional review. The Justice Department, the Obama for America campaign, and groups like the League of Women Voters have brought legal action against GOP-backed laws in other critical states, such as Florida, Ohio, and Texas, where they’ve managed to block or remove some of the provisions deemed most onerous.

Read more: http://nationaljournal.com/politics/new-voting-laws-get-democratic-organizers-fired-up-20120920

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