GOP Voter Suppression Efforts

The Republican Party's effort to suppress votes, especially in predominantly Democratic areas, is nationwide and on-going. Below are some of the lowlights of their efforts.

In Ohio, where 800,000 new voters have registered this year, the Republican Party is filing lawsuit after lawsuit to purge from the rolls people whose information doesn’t match other public records-records that are widely acknowledged to be flawed.

In September, Florida’s Republican Secretary of State told election officials to reject registrations that do not pass a computer match process that is foiled by typos and other minor errors. In just three weeks, 75 percent of matching problems were found to be the result of administrative errors; others are still being checked.

Also in September, Wisconsin’s Attorney General, who co-chairs the state McCain campaign, filed suit against the state election board, seeking to challenge the registration, by his count, of tens of thousands of voters.

Just last week, the Pennsylvania Republican Party filed a lawsuit to force newly registered voters in the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas to vote under challenge and cast provisional ballots that would not be on counted Election Day.

Registrars in several states have been denying registration to students who give dorm room addresses. In Virginia, a registrar circulated a memo saying students registering to vote could lose financial aid and tax dependent status.

And in at least one state, the GOP stated it would challenge mortgage foreclosure victims’ right to vote when they appeared at the polls on Election Day.

If you want to keep up with a blow-by-blow account of all the Republican suppression efforts, check out these two websites: Brennan Center for Justice (PDF) and Democrats.com

UPDATED: hat tip to reader L for pointing out this good interview by Amy Goodman about voter suppression efforts and how they fit into the larger scheme of Republican campaigning.