GOP Voter ID Law Gets Crushed

This post originally appeared on The BRAD BLOG.

If you read just one top-to-bottom dismantling of every supposed premise in support of disenfranchising Photo ID voting restrictions laws in your lifetime, let it be this one [PDF].

It is a dissent, released on Friday, written by Judge Richard Posner, the Reagan-appointed 7th Circuit Court of Appeals judge who was the one who approved the first such Photo ID law in the country (Indiana’s) back in 2008, in the landmark Crawford v. Marion County case which went all the way to the Supreme Court, where Posner’s ruling was affirmed. 

Infamous Southbridge Billboard Featured On Rachel Maddow Show

Ken O’Brien

Last night The Rachel Maddow Show broadcast a segment on voter intimidation. The opening image of the report was the billboard that appeared in Southbridge during the special election for State Representative implying that citizens had to present ID to vote.

Also featured was a photo of a table set up within a polling place in New Bedford giving the appearance that ID was needed to vote in that city. That incident led to action by the state.

The video of the report follows:

Southbridge, MA, here we go again!

By Dennis Martinek

Vote Tuesday, June 28, 2011

8 AM to 8PM

If you need a ride to the polls, call

774-230-7626

or

774-230-1489

It has not been an easy year for Southbridge, MA.
The town has been the subject of a Tea Party group from out of town getting involved in a district race for State Representative that resulted in what many call a racist billboard being placed in the heart of town, a heavily Hispanic area of town to boot.
Southbridge has a large population that comes from Puerto Rico, and the two groups involved in "encouraging" voters to show an ID to vote (despite being illegal to ask for an ID, they didn't seem to get the fact that a) in Southbridge, outsiders are not welcome in Southbridge's political process, and b) Puerto Ricans are American citizens, and have been, since 1917.
So, like Sarah Palin before them, the Tea Party Group appears to be growing less significant every time they speak, as they target the wrong people.
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