Isn’t that just like the GOP? Others hear about not letting 80 and 90 year old nuns vote and they shake their heads and say, “that’s awful.” But the GOP–in this case the Oklahoma State Senate GOP majority–see it as opportunity.
All through history, the political left has agitated to expand the franchise. The left worked and fought yo abolish the rules that only allowed white Christian male property holders the right to vote. The political right fought to prevent poor people from voting, to prevent Jews, Blacks, women, young people… And a few weeks ago the rightist Supreme Court gave the thumbs up to a Republican scheme to limit voting in Indiana. We saw the first results of that ruling today.
About 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place by a fellow bride of Christ because they didn’t have state or federal identification bearing a photograph.[..]
Tonight I got a notice from Andrew Rice alerting me that the Oklahoma Senate had prevented the Republicans from doing the same thing in his state. All of the GOP senators voted to restrict voting rights and all the Democrats voted to prevent them from shrinking the franchise.
The vote was 24-23 for the bill, but it takes 25 votes to pass a bill in the 48-member Senate. All 24 Republicans supported the plan, while 23 Democrats voted against it.
Democrats said the proposal was meant to help Republicans and would deter the elderly and other citizens from voting because they may not have identification readily available.
Ford said the bill is needed to guard against voter fraud.
Voter fraud is something the GOP gets hysterical about, like welfare fraud. And like welfare fraud the GOP turns reality on its head. They will wreck hundreds of thousands of families’ lives because a few dozens people or even a few hundred people may have committed fraud to the tune of some thousands of dollars– while corporate welfare goes out to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. I can’t say that there has never been any voter fraud. But I can say the kind of voter fraud the Republicans talk about it nearly nonexistent or, at worst, extremely rare. Republican voter fraud, electronic voter fraud, voter suppression… now we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of voters. Read on…
Andrew Rice is one of Blue America candidates. If you’d like him to help us breakthrough the GOP juggernaut and deliver more and better Democrats, you can donate to his campaign here.
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