Making Voting Harder

Jonathan Alter (via nc links)

Then came Crawford v. Marion County, the 2008 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory photo-identification laws were constitutional on the basis of ballot protection. The evidence presented included not a single case of in-person impersonation fraud -- the only fraud that photo ID laws can prevent. And the millions of Americans -- mostly less-affluent seniors -- without driver’s licenses? Good luck.
The big Republican victory in the 2010 election was essential to the Voter Suppression Project. With the help of ALEC -- a conservative lobbying outfit that spreads cookie- cutter bills to state legislatures -- Republicans moved with lightning speed to implement their scheme. Since 2011, 18 states have enacted voter-suppression bills, with similar ones pending in 12 more.
In the presidential race, it’s hand-to-hand legal combat, with almost every battleground state embroiled in a struggle over voter eligibility.
Michigan’s bills attack the League of Women Voters by requiring some volunteers to attend state-approved training sessions before they can register voters. The catch is that the bill makes no provisions for such sessions. Ha! It does threaten them with penalties for registration offenses that aren’t specified.
The bill is modeled on Florida’s, parts of which a federal judge invalidated May 31 because he said they had “no purpose other than to discourage” constitutionally protected activity.

This shit pisses me off to no end.  Republicans make it harder to vote in person, but easier to vote absentee.  What's up with that?  Oh right, old white people often vote absentee.  The real deal is that Republicans know they can't win if an election has good turnout, so they try to keep people from voting.  Stay classy, assholes.  One thing about ALEC, it is very successful at rapidly implementing shitty legislation in state after Republican-dominated state.  Just think how much good they could do if they actually wrote decent law.  But why do that when you can line your pockets with money.