Obama campaign mobilizing thousands of lawyers to combat voter ID laws, voting restrictions

Source: Cronkite News Service

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- President Barack Obama's reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee are coordinating and deploying thousands of lawyers to help voters deal with an array of recent voting law changes, according to national and state campaign officials.

Democrats and voting rights group say laws enacted across the country, from voter ID requirements to restrictions on third-party registration groups to shortened early-voting windows, are enacted largely by Republican legislatures and governors in a systematic effort to disenfranchise likely Democratic voters. Republicans across the country have said the changes are about preventing election fraud.

"The entire Republican program built around this anti-fraud theme had many component parts," said Robert Bauer, the lead lawyer for both the Democratic National Convention and Organizing for America, Obama's reelection campaign. "All of them organized around a central objective of disenfranchisement."

Bauer made the comments Thursday during a Voting Rights Institute meeting at the Democratic National Convention. The Voting Rights Institute, created by the DNC after the 2000 election, also held a voter-suppression panel that blasted voting law changes in Florida, Ohio and other states.

Bauer said the changes to the laws could make local election officials, many of whom he said were trying to do the right thing, make mistakes that disenfranchise voters.

"Votes lost," Bauer said. "Votes cast not counted. Voters turned away at the polls."


Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/2012/09/07/20120907BC-CNS-DNC-Voting-Rights.html#ixzz25oxzuOqK

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/2012/09/07/20120907BC-CNS-DNC-Voting-Rights.html