Obama tackles voter suppression laws

The NY Times is reporting that field staff for President Obama’s campaign are fanning out across the country to confront the “barrage” of GOP passed voter ID laws. Many of these vote suppression laws, including those in Florida and Wisconsin, are the subject of legal challenges. Earlier this year, voters in Maine overturned a GOP passed law that ended same day voter registration. The President’s campaign apparently wants to be prepared for either situation, the laws being struck down or upheld. 
In the 2010 midterm elections GOP candidates won 29 of 50 governorships and took majority control of an additional 19 state legislative chambers that were controlled by Democrats. What happened next, Ann Sanner of the Associated Press reported that state legislatures under new Republican control are moving to trim early-voting days, beef up identification requirements and put new restrictions on how voters are notified about absentee ballots. In Florida, the GOP led legislature went further, adding an onerous new requirement of 48 hours for groups registering voters to turn in the voter registration forms.  Posted by Brent Scott, Executive Director of Vote by Mail America

Early voting under "a sneak attack"

Last November, in a stinging rebuke of GOP Gov. John Kasich, voters in Ohio overturned SB 5, which was widely regarded as an anti-union law. SB 5 placed new restrictions on collective bargaining for public employees. In what may prove to be an
embarrassing case of history repeating, Ohio voters may vote to overturn the vote  suppressing HB 194, that was signed into law by the governor in July of 2011. 
On December 9, 2011 the Ohio Secretary of State certified that supporters of a referendum to overturn HB 194 had collected sufficient signatures to qualify the measure for the November 6, 2012 statewide ballot, concurring with the presidential election.

Now, in a move Democratic State Rep. Kathleen Clyde of Kent described as a "sneak attack" on early voting, Ohio Senate Republicans have begun a push for legislative repeal of HB 194 ahead of the scheduled Nov. 6, 2012 election, perhaps hoping to avoid what is likely to be a second stinging rebuke at the polls for the governor and the GOP controlled legislature.
As reported in the Akron Beacon Journal, "the repeal bill seeks to reinstate one of the most objectionable features of HB 194 -- imposing a deadline on in-person absentee voting starting the Friday before Election Day, cutting off a three-day window when interest reaches its peak." Read ABJ editorial

Poisonous to democracy

For the second time a Wisconsin state judge has struck down, as unconstitutional, the constrversial SB 6 voter ID law.

Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess issued the permanent injunction, finding the law unconstitutional because it would abridge the right to vote. He wrote in his eight-page ruling that "voter fraud is no more poisonous to our democracy than voter suppression." Report.

Disenfranchising voters in "absurd" ways
By Brent Scott

On May 19, 2011 the Wisconsin legislature passed a controversial voter ID bill, SB 6. A few days later Gov. Scott Walker signed it into law. On March 7, 2012, in a case brought by the Milwaukee NAACP, Dane County Judge David Flanagan temporarily blocked enforcement of the law. In his opinion, Judge Flanagan noted: the law disenfranchises voters, sometimes in absurd ways, and targets a problem that is only slightly more real than fairies and unicorns. Reuters article.

In his ruling Judge Flanagan explains, the Wisconsin Constitution provides particularly strong protections for the right to vote — "[e]very United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district in this state is a qualified elector of that district," regardless of whether or not they have an ID. Moreover, the state supreme court has interpreted this constitutional provision very robustly. "Voting is a constitutional right," according to the Wisconsin supremes, "any statute that denies a qualified elector the right to vote is unconstitutional and void." more