In his article on The American Prospect’s website today, Alexander Zaitchik quotes Project Vote Research Director Lorraine Minnite and other voting rights experts on a controversial voting rights bill being considered in Wisconsin. “If passed in the full Assembly, where it could see a vote as early as next week, the law would end same-day registration, eliminate the straight-ticket voting option on ballots, and require voters to present a state-issued photo ID at the polls,” Zaitchik writes.
The bill’s main author and sponsor, Republican Rep. Jeff Stone, claims that the proposed law reflects his party’s concern for the “integrity” of the voting process. But critics of the bill in Wisconsin and around the country point to evidence that voter-ID legislation is a solution in search of a problem. Cases of voter fraud of the sort addressed by Stone’s bill are roughly on par with instances of people being struck by lightning, according to research conducted by Lorraine Minnite, a political scientist at Barnard College and the author of The Myth of Voter Fraud.
The true purpose of such bills, says a growing chorus of critics, is the stealth disenfranchisement of poor, elderly, student, and minority voters…
Read the full article at The American Prospect here.