Black women rally against voter ID laws

Source: AP-Excite

By SUZANNE GAMBOA

WASHINGTON (AP) - Deidra Reese isn't waiting for people to come to her to find out whether they are registered to vote.

With iPad in hand, Reese is going to community centers, homes and churches in nine Ohio cities, looking up registrations to make sure voters have proper ID and everything else they need to cast ballots on Election Day.

"We are not going to give back one single inch. We have fought too long and too hard," said Reese, 45, coordinator of the Columbus-based Ohio Unity Coalition, an affiliate of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation.

Reese is part of a cadre of black women engaged in a revived wave of voting rights advocacy four years after the historic election of the nation's first black president. Provoked by voting law changes in various states, they have decided to help voters navigate the system - a fitting role, they say, given that black women had the highest turnout of any group of voters in 2008.

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Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20120921/DA1E1G8O3.html

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In this June 27, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, arrive at the Congressional picnic on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. The Democratic president and first lady will tape an episode of "The View" on Monday, Sept. 20, 2012 to air the next day, in their first joint appearance on the daytime show. GOP challenger Mitt Romney might not be far behind. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)