The New Undue Burden On Voters

Ryan J. Reilly of TPM:

More than 10 million potential voters in states with voter photo ID laws live over 10 miles from an office which issues such identification more than two days a week, according to a new report from the Brennan Center.

Of that group, 500,000 do not have access to a car or another vehicle, according to the report. While many of those individuals may already have identification, the report argues that such a burden discourages individuals from exercising their right to vote.

“The result is plain: Voter ID laws will make it harder for hundreds of thousands of poor Americans to vote,” the report states. “They place a serious burden on a core constitutional right that should be universally available to every American citizen.”

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If there were a Hell (and regular readers know I dismiss the notion as highly improbable), there would surely be a special place in it for Republicans who spend their money and their efforts suppressing the vote of people less fortunate than themselves.

NOTE: the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law has done outstanding work in the areas of voting rights, campaign finance reform and constitutional protection in these parlous times. They will be on the blogroll soon, as a resource for us all on those issues.