In the face of decreased enthusiasm this presidential year among blacks and young people for President Barack Obama, progressives are going to great lengths to create unnecessary hysteria among the two key voting blocks in order to round up more votes for Democratic candidates.
Left-leaning organizations and activists claim that Republican efforts to curb proven instances of voter fraud are really attempts to disenfranchise minorities and students. Conservatives have largely ignored the disingenuous attacks hoping the election year distraction would eventually get buried by serious issues such as the youth jobless rate and the national debt.
Unfortunately progressive groups like Van Jones’ Color of Change have been successful and spreading these lies. And much like the Obama campaign has turned GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s time at Bain Capital into a campaign issue despite the ridiculousness of the arguments being made against Romney, so too have Democrats successfully generated enough noise about Voter Identification laws that conservatives must now take notice of the claims that are being made.
The latest manifestation of this claim bubbled up Thursday, at a progressive student activist conference in Washingon, D.C.. hosted by Campus Progress, a project of left-wing organization Center for American Progress, the Brennan Center for Justices’ Lee Rowland claimed on a “Voter Suppression panel” that states, including Texas, South Carolina and Wisconsin, were purposely trying to “screw over students” with stricter voting laws.
The Brennan Center, which is part of the New York School for Law, claims to be non-partisan, but it is commonly identified in the media as liberal (as a mere glance at the organization’s website easily confirms).
Furthermore, the Brennan Center is a client of self-described progressive data firm Catalist, which provides the organization with the data it uses to make its faulty claims that Republicans are trying to suppress minorities and youth from voting. Catalist’s other clients include: the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the Democratic Governor’s Association (DGA), the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), Emily’s List, Families USA, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Education Association (NEA), the National Council of La Raza, Obama for America, as well as a whole host of Democratic Representatives such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Not coincidentally, as Republican Rep.Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) pointed out in a House Judiciary Oversight sub committee hearing on Thursday, the Obama administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ), which has been backing up Democrats’ misleading claims with legal action is also obtaining its data from Catalist.
Amonng the states that have been targeted by the Brennan Center for “discriminatory” Voter ID laws is Kansas, which signed legislation requiring voters to have photo identification to vote into law in April of 2011.
Despite having one of the strictest Voter ID laws in the nation, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has sought to work with students by allowing them to use their student IDs to both register to vote and to vote. The state also launched GotVoterID.com to help guide residents through the new laws.
“I think that most people are hard pressed to think of one person they know who lacks a photo ID, and in Kansas that is a pretty broad list of photo IDs, including student IDs,” Kobach said at a Heritage Foundation event in D.C. on Thursday.
To back up his point, Kobach pointed to the 53 elections held across the state of Kansas since the voter ID law he initiated was enacted.
Of the 68,000 people who voted, only 84 people showed up with out photo ID. Those 84 potential voters were given provisional ballots and given 6-8 days to bring the ballot back with proof of ID in order to have their vote counted. Of the original 84 people 39 people came back with a photo ID and were able to vote.
Although not every state allows students to vote with their student ID, the fact that students either have to vote in their home state via absentee ballot or obtain a driver’s license from the state they attend school in if they want to vote doesn’t certainly doesn’t make students victims.
As Rowland told students at the Campus Progress National Conference, “Let’s be clear – these laws are awful, but all of you will be able to navigate them an be able to vote.”
Her comment that the laws are awful not withstanding (because they aren’t), the bottom line is that if you want to vote, if you are over the age of 18, you are not a felon and are you are a legal US resident, you will be able to vote if you follow the rules. Plain and simple.
Watch Kobach’s speech at The Heritage Foundation about election integrity below.
