Willard Romney SUPPORTS VOTER ID LAWS That Could Disenfranchise 25% Of African Americans

[Segami]

" Mitt Romney is scheduled to speak at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) convention. He will purportedly focus solely on the economy, steering clear of addressing the controversial voter identification laws that the civil rights organization sees as “systematically suppressing voters of color, students and the elderly.” Indeed, Romney has previously backed the very efforts the NAACP opposes, saying, “I like Voter ID laws by the way… more of them,” ignoring the evidence that voter ID laws disproportionately disenfranchise African-Americans:

- A Center for American Progress investigation concluded that “these laws hinder voting rights in a manner not seen since the era of Jim Crow,” given that minorities (along the young and the poor) are more likely to be unable to acquire photo identification.


- Indeed, 25 percent of African-American voters lack the type of ID required to vote under these laws.


- Attorney General Eric Holder called the standard voter ID legislation “a new poll tax” after his Department of Justice found sufficient grounds under the Voting Rights Act to block ID laws in South Carolina and Texas due to their disproportionate impact on minority voters.


- Voter fraud, the problem Voter ID laws are ostensibly supposed to correct, is basically nonexistent. Even proponents of the legislation can’t point to any actual examples.


- Voter ID laws are occasionally justified in straightforwardly racist or partisan Republican terms.


- Romney may know all of this – he used to support an extraordinarily progressive approach to getting voters ID.

Civil rights leaders are already taking a hard look at Romney’s “abysmal” record on the issues as Governor of Massachusetts. One has to wonder whether he – or any other Republican – could hope to make inroads in the African-American community while supporting such blatant voter suppression tactics.


UPDATE - Romney did not address Voter ID laws in his NAACP speech.




http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/07/11/514412/romney-supports-voter-id-laws-that-could-disenfranchise-25-of-african-americans/

[liberal N proud]

1. Republicans don't want people to vote!

[Segami]

2. Well, then WE should make sure that 'people' are reminded of that fact everyday until election day.

[barbtries]

3. of course they don't

the more people that vote the less likely the republicans will be able to steal the election. never mind winning, they just need it close enough to steal.

i fucking hate republicans. they show me why every day, every day

[liberal N proud]

6. Exactly what I have been saying for years.

If everyone who could or should vote would vote, then the republicans would never win an election.

I think that voting should be compulsory as it is in Sweden.

[HopeHoops]

4. Isn't this in the "WELL FUCKING DUH!" department?

[Wellstone ruled]

5. What do you expect

from a Mormon. If you are not white or from the chosen,you don't get the opportunity. Been around this crowd to long,they are all bad news. Read the article on yahoo yesterday,that's the real deal. Glad to be a Agnostic,so,I believe in total separation of church and state. Mormons expect government to serve their ends.