[Interactive Map] Voter Suppression Efforts Nationwide
If you have been following politics, than you know that Wisconsin is a major battleground this year. Well, Wisconsin isn’t the only state where voters are being challenged to get to the polls. Suppression tactics can be seen across the nation in places like Indiana, Kansas, and Georgia just to name a few. Recently the Fair Elections Legal Network and Campus Progress, have unveiled their interactive voter suppression map. This map shows us where voters rights are being challenged.
What does this mean for us, you ask?
Well, the Voter ID bill is deigned to disenfranchise the very young and very old voters who may not have state IDs, or who have recently moved and do not have a current ID with their new address. At first, I didn’t understand what the big deal was either, but I learned that in Wisconsin, that minorities, and poor and transient people are disproportionately effected by this law. If you’re a college student from Milwaukee, living in Madison, you may not be able to vote. Or if you are a homeless teenager, who wants to exercise your right to vote, you may be denied because you have nowhere to receive mail. These may seem like small problems, but when you add it all up, many people will lose the right to vote.
So what’s the solution? Well, in Milwaukee, the Wisconsin League has been mobilizing young people for weeks to get the word out that the current voter ID bill has been suspended, and you can currently vote without restriction in the upcoming election. They are informing the minority communities, that unless they get out to vote, bills like this may become laws! Not only are they informing people, but The League of Young Voters Education Fund is working hard nationwide to get young, new, and old voters registered.
Our best defense, may be our offense, and nothing will help get more voters out, than making sure they are currently registered at their correct address. Do it online here if you need to: bit.ly/99votes
Get involved in your area, because voting is your right!
[...] » [Interactive Map] Voter Suppression Efforts Nationwide @theleague99 [...]
I have dual residences in N.Y. and Georgia. I tried to switch registration ( and license ) of new car but was impossible since passport more than 10 years old and my NYS license had just expired one week previous to attempt Ga. registration.
I just had difficulty voting in Ga.’s primary with my NYS license. I had to go home and get utility bills.
It is not easy to get valid ID w/o birth certificate or valid passport. I predict massive problems this November.
Hey John, Please share with your friends that they need to update their voter registration to their current address, where they will be voting in November. You can also sign up for an absentee ballot right here so you can vote from home: http://bit.ly/99votes. Please share!
I heard a report on MSNBC that the attorney general in Ohio or some other official has restricted the hours that the polls will be open in Democratic (poor) districts and expanded the hours in Republican (well to do) districts. If this is true and if there are missing and broken voting machines in the poor and Democratic districts, (like the last election!) the process will be very slow and many working class voters, poor and middle class will arrive after they get off work–after 5 pm and the long lines will prevent them from voting before the polls close–eliminating their vote AGAIN.
Everyone needs to know that they must get to the polls as soon as possible. Work needs to get out. People should move through the line and vote as quickly as possible to allow as many voters in as possible. Send out or distribute info about how to get absentee ballots.
Call in sick. In states where there are ID requirement laws. Help your friends get their voter IDs and separate IDs at the DMV.
Thank you.
[...] to vote until Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but the struggle isn’t over. Many, many states are currently enacting voter suppression laws that require identification at the polls, or proof of [...]
[...] http://99problems.org/2012/05/interactive-map-voter-suppression-efforts-nationwide/ [...]
This is the most backward thing I have ever seen in my 51 years as a American. This makes me ashamed to live in Texas which has agreed to stupid law. This law has one purpose. They don’t want a person of color to ever be president. The end. This is sick. This is wrong. USA stands for us all. Not just old rich white hatters. America we are better than this. We are the UAS. The land of US All!