The Charlotte and Raleigh McClatchy newspapers have a story today about the new voter suppression bill in the General Assembly, featured in our April 21 Link of the Day: S-657. You can read the lame reasoning of the Art Pope-funded legislators who are the bill’s chief sponsors. Saving tax money can’t be a justification for this legislation, because Same Day Registration saves money and other changes it proposes will add costs to the election system. The bill sponsors have an elitist view of democracy and clearly don’t want to help more people become voters. The New York Times puts this bill in the larger context of a national move by Republicans to use their new power in state capitals to roll back voting rights before the 2012 election. The Times editorial includes several useful links.
1-888-OUR-VOTE|info@democracy-nc.org
First of all your terms are inaccurate. It is not a voter suppression bill. No legal voter will be prevented from voting if they are properly registered and have a photo ID proving that they are who they say they are. Safeguards are necessary to prevent illegal aliens from voting.
You can call it what you want, but is solely about intimidation and vote suppression among students, the elderly, the disabled, minorities, the poor and others who generally support the Democratic Party. There is no voter fraud, except in the feeble minds of the proponents of this bill, which they got from the rightwing site, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) (they are not smart enough to think all this up in the Republican legislature). The goal is simple–deny Democrats votes! Any way possible, do anything necessary, including putting blocks in the way of the right, repeat right, of people to vote. All the Republican tea Party garbage about this bill is generated via the Americans for Prosperity, a Koch funded operation, with help I am sure from Pope Art and his merry band of liars at the Locke and Civitas places.
Feeble minds of the proponents? Grinning, that’s what the leftwingers like to do to disparage anyone who disagrees with them. It doesn’t accomplish anything put put your own shortcomings on full display. According to you the legislature members are not smart enough, is it your opinion that only the leftwingers are smart? I reckon not.
Your argument holds no water, nobody is having their vote suppressed or receiving intimidation. What this bill does is place boundaries on the process to make it more orderly. Order is good, chaos is bad. This will just cause all of the groups that you listed to plan a little better. So if they miss early voting due to their attendance at a rock concert, then the poor dears will just have to vote on election day!
Requiring voters to show photo IDs will put a stop to illegal aliens from voting. Oh, unless your real agenda is allowing illegals to vote since you feel they will vote the way you like them to.
Honestly, I continue to be amazed by the leftwing talking points on the Koch Brothers. Everything I’ve seen that they advocate are good values for this country. Whereas the leftwing hero, George Soros advocates destructive policies for this country. Please try to think for yourself and open your mind up more.
If these bills were really about voter fraud, any republican worth a spit would be too embarrassed to support them, because there is no credible evidence suggesting such laws are needed. What’s being pushed is The Cause — the radical right’s ideology — , as exemplified by attacks on labor under the pretense of reducing debt. Lots of people (who could otherwise register and vote) lack the paper credentials to meet the demanding new requirements, but the convenient exclusion (suppression) of a big segment of the population from the voting rolls will make elections and governance more and more the privileged realm of the rich. That’s what it’s all about, a return to the good old days of feudalism, when common people knew their place.
The safeguards we need to finance are those addressing actual problems, such as food-borne salmonella, and industrial chemicals polluting our air by the hundreds of tons a year.
Leo,
The voting process deserves our attention to make it secure and honest. Illegal aliens are not entitled to vote and as a voting citizen, I want my voting rights protected. You can say what you like about about motivations but it’s just your speculation. I’ve always felt the process here in NC is too loosey goosey and open for fraud. As we all know illegal aliens make up fake social security numbers. See my note below for additonal comments.