According to an email from President Barack Obama’s campaign, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Organizing for America (OFA) are launching a national “voter protection team” as part of its Voter Protection Victory Counsel’s fight “to protect the right to vote.”
“You’ve probably heard: In many states, we’re facing laws that make it more difficult for a lot of voters to exercise their voice at the polls. We can help overcome these barriers — if we work together,” the email reads.
It goes on to announce a conference calling being held by OFA and the DNC’s legal counsel” to talk about what we’re going to do between now and Election Day to protect the right to vote.”
“Victory in November for President Obama and other Democrats depends on strong supporters like you stepping up today to help protect the right of every American citizen to vote and participate in our democracy.”
The Obama campaign is presumably referencing the Voter ID laws many states have passed ahead of the 2012 elections that seek to . . . wait for it . . . protect voters from identity theft and prevent other forms of voter fraud on Election Day. The only voters those laws will make it more difficult to ‘exercise their voice’ are those who don’t have a right to vote because they are not U.S. citizens.
Would be voters who are legally registered to vote and show up without photo ID will be allowed to cast a provisional ballot that will be counted when they bring return with proper identification. And considering that states that have passed Voter ID laws since the last election has widely publicized the new laws through informational campaigns and have been the focal point of local, state and national media attention, it would be ‘difficult’ to not know about the laws and what constitutes proper identification in the first place if you were a well informed citizen who is serious about exercising your right to vote.
It’s great to see the Obama campaign suddenly taking ‘voter protection’ so seriously, but the focus of its campaign appears to be misguided, specifically in its assumptions of what voters need protection from and what type of voters Voter ID laws seek to make it ‘difficult’ to vote for.
Full text of the email:
