Voter Suppression: The "Schurick Doctrine" and the Unravelling of American Democracy

• Republicans across the United States have passed a spate of voter suppression laws aimed at those most likely to vote for Obama. They are specifically targeting African American women who, in the past, created a gender gap that decisively elected Democratic presidents. America needs immediate international monitoring of its presidential election.
• Although the Republican effort is not exactly a secret, few Americans are discussing it with the urgency it deserves.
• Going Undercover at the GOP's Voter Vigilante Project to Disrupt the Nov. Election
• The One-Two Punch

Ruth Rosen, openDemocracy

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Lydia Howell

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(August 27. 2012) How will the American Presidential election be won in November 2012? By the Republicans buying the election? Perhaps. But money cannot always buy an election. That is why Republicans have spent the last 4-6 years passing a spate of voter suppression laws in “swing states” that will make it more difficult and costly for the young, the elderly, minorities, union members and single and elderly women to cast a vote for Barack Obama.

Although the Republican effort is not exactly a secret, few Americans are discussing it with the urgency it deserves. The nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law says that since the start of 2011, 16 states—which account for 214 electoral votes—have passed restrictive voting laws. Each law is different: some curb voter registration drives; others require new and costly forms of identification; and still others insist that voters produce government-issued photo IDs at the polls. The Brennan Center also points out that:

“[T]he scope of the suppression movement and its potential impact are staggering ... as many as 11 percent of eligible voters—roughly 21 million Americans—lack current, unexpired government-issued photo IDs. The percentages are even higher among seniors, African-Americans and other minorities, the working poor, the disabled and students—constituencies that traditionally skew Democratic and whose disenfranchisement could prove decisive in any close election.”

Full story...

Related:

Going Undercover at the GOP's Voter Vigilante Project to Disrupt the Nov. Election, Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet

• The Republican True the Vote project is a well-funded scheme with training sessions for activists across the country. Will it work?
• Includes news about Minnesota Majority (organization pushing voter ID referendum) and the Wisconsin recall election shenanigans.

The One-Two Punch, Ricardo Levins Morales, rlmarts.com
The blueprint for eliminating fifty years of LGBT advances in all areas of life and law is to be found in their voter suppression strategy, not the Marriage Amendment.
The Marriage Amendment As Decoy and How to Fight The Real Danger