by Jeremy Leaming
A growing chorus of lawmakers and civil liberties groups is ratcheting up pressure for the federal government to respond to a slew of new, rigid state restrictions on voting.
Today, leading House members announced they will conduct a forum on Nov. 14 to explore the possible ramifications the restrictions will have on forthcoming elections. House members scheduled to participate include House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.), House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), House Administration Committee Ranking Member Robert Brady (D-Pa.), House Judiciary Constitution Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.). See here for more information about the forum.
Last week, Hoyer and Brady sent a letter signed by nearly 200 of their colleagues to state officials calling on them “to oppose new state measures adopted over the last year that would make it harder for eligible voters to register or vote.” Their action was preceded by Conyers (pictured) and Nadler urging the House Judiciary Committee to conduct hearings on the restrictive new measures.
Brave New Foundation and the Advancement Project launched a project tagging the conservative group the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC with writing much of the new restrictions that have been implemented primarily by Republican controlled statehouses.
The project includes a video, posted on both groups’ websites, which details the extent of the restrictive voting laws, and charges that Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers who have bankrolled Tea Party activities and efforts, such as the one in Wisconsin, to undercut workers’ rights, as also being involved in the movement attacking voting rights.
“The Koch brothers are behind these laws because they want to cut off the participation of people who are not behind their corporate agenda,” Judith Brown Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project said.
NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous said, “We are in a moment right now where we are seeing the most aggressive attempt to roll back voting rights in this country that we’ve seen in over a century.”
The groups are also circulating a petition urging Attorney General Eric Holder to “bring the full power of the United States Department of Justice to oppose any discriminatory laws that will disenfranchise voters, and to demand states’ compliance with the Voting Rights Act and other laws to ensure that the rights of voters are protected.”
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today, Holder said “techniques to discourage people from coming to the polls – that’s inconsistent with what we say we are as a nation,” Ryan J. Reilly reports for TPM. Holder said the DOJ would “be aggressive at looking at these jurisdictions that have attempted for whatever reason to restrict the ability of people to get to the polls.”
Many of the new laws require strict voter ID requirements, and 38 states have enacted laws removing same-day registration and early voting. The laws are aimed at suppressing the vote, especially among African Americans, students, the elderly, among others. A recent study by the Brennan Center for Justice said the restrictions “could make it significantly harder for more than five million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012.”
[image via House Committee on Education and the Workforce Dem]
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