The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote.
The measure would allow far more rigorous demands than the voter ID requirement recently upheld by the Supreme Court, in which voters had to prove their identity with a government-issued card.
Sponsors of the amendment — which requires the approval of voters to go into effect, possibly in an August referendum — say it is part of an effort to prevent illegal immigrants from affecting the political process. Critics say the measure could lead to the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of legal residents who would find it difficult to prove their citizenship.
This is a disturbing trend. The Indiana law was noxious enough and now the GOP in Missouri have taken the issue dramatically further. Proof of citizenship goes far beyond the hardship of mere ID requirements and will make voting so difficult that many will likely just choose not to participate. All of this in the name of preventing fraud for which there is little to no evidence.
The article goes on to quote Missouri's Democratic Secretary of State Robin Carnahan in estimating that this law could disenfranchise up to 240,000 voters. Think about that number, nearly a quarter of a million people would not be able to exercise their Constitutional right to vote. All in the name of preventing voter fraud for which proponents of the law can provide no evidence.
This from the "Party of Lincoln."
1 comment:
what kind of ID verification WOULD be acceptable and not voter disenfranchisement? I'm just wondering... I think that all Americans have ID, right? [except maybe NUNS].
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