Froomkin: You Know What the ‘Voter ID’ Push Is All About, So Say So

[jaxx]

Dan Froomkin: You Know What the ‘Voter ID’ Push Is All About, So Say So
Posted at 10:21 am, July 30th, 2012

<..> This is not simply another gratuitously partisan act by the GOP. This is an attack on the very notion of democracy. The voter ID push, along with intimidation of voter registration groups and purges of voter rolls have only one goal: blocking legitimate but probably Democratic voters from exercising their constitutional rights. It is a poll tax with a new twist.

And the pursuit of this goal ostensibly in the name of voter fraud is an outrageous deception that only works if the press is too timid to call it what it really is.

For reporters to treat this issue like just another political squabble is journalistic malpractice. Indeed, relating the debate in value-neutral he-said-she-said language is actively helping spread the lie. After all, calling for someone to show ID before voting doesn’t sound pernicious to most people, even though it is. And raising the bogus issue of voter fraud at all stokes fear. “Even if you say there is no fraud, all people hear is ‘fraud fraud fraud’,” said Lawrence Norden, a lawyer at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

<..> The GOP has taken increasingly radical positions, confident that the media’s aversion to taking sides will protect it from too much negative coverage. But failing to call out the voter ID push is like covering the civil rights movements and treating “separate but equal” as if it was said with sincerity.

http://blog.niemanwatchdog.org/2012/07/y...so-say-so/

What a call out to the press! Will they listen?

[Brewman_Jax]

Of course the press is quiet.

The big lie the racist and ignorant supporters use is that ID is required, so why is voting different? Some sort of ID has ALWAYS been required, but the options were many. In GA years ago, if one didn't have a driver's license, 2 ID docs were needed, e.g. the voter registration card, library card, some sort of proof of address, and the like. Those were normally on hand and not a hardship to get. Now it has to be the state or federal issued photo ID, and NOW they've made it such a hassle to renew one's license (proof of citizenship/birth cert AND social security card AND 2 proof of address docs) that the wait has gone from a manageable 30-45 mins to 4-6 hours. THAT made the news, more the wait than the new requirements to stop "voter fraud".

[janedrake]

I agree 100% with Froomkin. -- and exactly, Brewman_Jax -- that's the part that all the "what's the big deal" people completely ignore. First the GOP demands you have the ID, but the kicker is, they make it almost impossible to get.

[Brewman_Jax]

(07-30-2012 09:15 PM)janedrake Wrote:  I agree 100% with Froomkin. -- and exactly, Brewman_Jax -- that's the part that all the "what's the big deal" people completely ignore. First the GOP demands you have the ID, but the kicker is, they make it almost impossible to get.

Also, those state-issued ID have to be purchased, they generally aren't free. Hence, that's a poll tax, and courts have stopped quite a few voter ID laws from going into effect on that basis.