I am sure many people did not realize Tuesday, Nov 8th was a polling day. It was one of those voting days that passed with little fanfare in sharp contrast to the circus we will see next year. Knowing little about the candidates and no pressing issue for me on the ballot, I almost decided to skip it all together. I changed my mind and followed my wife into the polling site. I decided to register support for an alternative to the Republicans and Democrats. But most important to me this year, I wanted to exercise my right to vote in the face of state by state efforts to stop me.
NAACP President Benjamin Jealous: Stand For Freedom
organizing meeting.
Across the country there is a coordinated campaign to limit people’s access to the ballot box. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law published a study outlining the attacks on voting rights and how they could impact 2012. I think the Executive Summary does a great job in outlining voter suppression efforts. The full document is an excellent resource to see what is going on in your state and to have a deeper understanding of the national picture.
There are five tactics being used to suppress votes. They are requiring ID, requiring proof of citizenship, making voter registration harder, reducing early and absentee days and making it harder to restore voting rights.
To many some if not all of these measures may sound reasonable, but first read this excerpt from the summary:
- These new laws could make it significantly harder for more than five million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012.
- The states that have already cut back on voting rights will provide 171 electoral votes in 2012 – 63 percent of the 270 needed to win the presidency.
- Of the 12 likely battleground states, as assessed by an August Los Angeles Times analysis of Gallup polling, five have already cut back on voting rights (and may pass additional restrictive legislation), and two more are currently considering new restrictions.