All Posts Tagged With: "Brennen Center"

For NEWSWEEK and Alter to allege  a plot by Republicans to keep blacks from voting patronizes blacks and is little more than reverse Jim Crow race baiting.

NEWSWEEK’S Senior Editor Jonathan Alter writes in next week’s issue of a GOP plot to “keep eligible African-Americans from voting in several states.” NEWSWEEK’S and Alter’s notorius biases are showing. But, for Alter to allege  a plot by Republicans to keep blacks from voting patronizes blacks and Is little more than reverse Jim Crow race baiting.

Alter’s proof is his own partisan speculation and a tissue thin “study” by the New York University Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice the leftist think tank and legal activist group, heavily financed by George Soros’ Open Society Institute.

Alter’s thesis rotates around the 2008 Supreme Court 6-3 decision, Crawford vs. Marion County (Indiana) Election Board that examined Indiana law, that voters have to produce a photo identification (driver’s license, Passport, military identification or other official photo document to vote) voters who do not have a photo ID may cast a provisional ballot just as if you forgot to reregister after moving. To have their votes counted, they must visit a designated government office within 10 days and either bring a photo ID or sign a statement saying they can’t afford one.

Alter contends that the Brennan Center study found no evidence of large scale voting fraud so the whole photo ID thing is a straw man. So, requiring photo identification must be a Republican scheme to disinfranchise blacks. He cites Indiana where more than two thirds of Indiana adults have no passports and nearly 15 percent are without a driver’s license. He says African-Americans are disproportionately “photo identificationless” relying on anecdotal conclusions like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when driver’s licenseless New Orleans blacks had on rely on public transport to escape and it failed stranding them.

Alter also cite but makes no complaint that In Ohio, a new law allows voters to register to vote and fill out an absentee ballot at the same time between Sept. 30 and Oct. 6. This will mean a week of furious campaigning and early voting in a key state. With 470,000 students enrolled in Ohio’s public colleges and universities (and nine out of 10 are Ohio residents), expect a bumper crop of pro-Obama young voters.

In California college students can register to vote if they claim their college address as permanent residence. Of course that means some vote at the college and at home too.

The court’s ruling tried to preserve and protecting an honesty voting system without raising barriers to franchise. As with almost everything else not everyone agrees about everything even that it should be fair and honest.