HOUSE BILL TAKES AIM AT VOTERS OF COLOR [View All]

HOUSE BILL TAKES AIM AT VOTERS OF COLOR
By Cynthia Tucker
Sat Oct 29, 8:12 PM ET

Last week, an ugly bit of business transpired in the GOP-dominated House of Representatives, where Republican hard-liners succeeded in passing a measure that would limit the ability of nonprofit groups to conduct voter registration drives. It was one of those moments when you don't have to wonder what the jihadist faction of the GOP is up to: They want to restrict the franchise to people who think as they do.

Rep. John Lewis (news, bio, voting record), D-Ga., a veteran of the civil rights movement, said the measure would "take us back to 1964 or 1965. I just think they (Republicans) want to be in a position to stifle the participation of poor people and minorities in the political process. They want to take us back to another period."
(snip)

In South Dakota, Republican legislators were more successful with their onerous voter ID requirement, passed in 2003 and apparently aimed at Native Americans, who also tend to support Democrats. Last year, though, two Republican senators, Kit Bond of Missouri and Richard Shelby of Alabama, failed in their attempt to sneak a provision into law that would have prohibited public housing sites from hosting voter registration initiatives and get-out-the-vote drives.
(snip)

Republicans seem to think that residents of low-cost housing, especially black and brown residents, have a tendency -- one they find troubling -- to vote Democratic. You'd think the GOP would find a way to appeal to those voters. But that would require the party to forsake its allegiance to big business and the wealthy. So, instead, it has decided to try to suppress the vote among citizens of color.
(snip/...)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucas/20051030/cm_ucas/housebilltakesaimatvotersofcolor;_ylt=A86.I1iSEGRDBDYAny79wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--