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Monday, September 30th, 2013

Southern States Are Moving to Tighten Voting Rules

Author:     MICHAEL J. MISHAK
Source:     The Associated Press
Publication Date:     Sep 28, 11:44 AM (ET)
 Link: Southern States Are Moving to Tighten Voting Rules
Stephan:   Here is the sequence: As the Southern states follow Theocratic Rightist policies, they will fall further and further behind the the Northeast and the coastal West. This will just exacerbate the process, and the growing poverty will require a scapegoat, people of color. Voter suppression is a a tool of this kind of politics. Racism as a host of incidents has made clear is alive and well in the South.; there can be no question of that. This is going to have two other effects, in my view. It will result in the migration of young people of color out of the South to the more welcoming areas of the country. They will leave behind their parents and grandparents all of whom are aging. The cost of their care will change the mind of Southern politicians who will suddenly want a more universal system. THe stresses this produces will ripple throughout the country strengthening the American Schism Trend. The Coastal West and the Northeast as it increases are going to baulk at underwriting the failure of the South.

MIAMI — Emboldened by the Supreme Court decision that struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act, a growing number of Republican-led states are moving aggressively to tighten voting rules. Lawsuits by the Obama administration and voting rights activists say those efforts disproportionately affect minorities.

At least five Southern states, no longer required to ask Washington’s permission before changing election procedures, are adopting strict voter identification laws or toughening existing requirements.

Texas officials are battling the U.S. Justice Department to put in place a voter ID law that a federal court has ruled was discriminatory. In North Carolina, the GOP-controlled Legislature scaled back early voting and ended a pre-registration program for high school students nearing voting age.

Nowhere is the debate more heated than in Florida, where the chaotic recount in the disputed 2000 presidential race took place.

Florida election officials are set to resume an effort to remove noncitizens from the state’s voting rolls. A purge last year ended in embarrassment after hundreds of American citizens, most of whom were black or Hispanic, were asked to prove their citizenship or risk losing their right to vote.

Republican leaders across the South say the new measures are needed to prevent voter fraud, even though […]

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