NORMAN — Editor, The Transcript:
Defenders of the new GOP voter laws make many logical arguments as to the ease of compliance. For most Americans who care enough to vote, requiring a government-issued photo ID isn’t a burden unless the wallet is in the other pair of jeans.
Depending on circumstances, though, the new laws can pose difficult obstacles for would-be voters, such as distance from the nearest DMV, urban public transportation, being carless, seniors who can’t drive/don’t have a birth certificate and the millions of Americans existing on society’s fringes.
In a moment of braggadocio, the Pennsylvania house majority speaker already spilled the beans on the new voter laws. They think it’ll help the cause in battleground states.
After America’s historic 2008 presidential election, they must have crunched the numbers in the Rove war room, realized America’s quickly changing demographics don’t favor the Grand Old Party and devised a scheme to cull the hoarde.
Start with the heading, make voting difficult and brainstorm from there — require government-issued photo ID, limit DMV hours in unfriendly districts, restrict early voting, no Sunday church bus voting, accept an NRA ID in Texas but not a student ID. It’s been as cynical and blatant as the Ohio secretary of state casting the tie-breaking vote when the 2D’s and 2R’s election boards deadlocked on extending voting hours, thumbs down in urban districts, late nights on friendly turf.
People howled, naturally, so the good secretary mandated the same limited hours for all districts. Why does he hate America? Mr. Joseph Miller wrote to The Transcript calling voter suppression un-American. It certainly is — even though for a good chunk of our nation’s past, not many were allowed to vote. Not a proud history, but some seem to be looking back wistfully.
When asked, no one will say in-person voter fraud actually exists, but that was never the point, which is a real shame to the tens of thousands of Americans around the globe laying it all on the line for the cause of freedom and self rule.
DAVID ORR
Norman
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