Thursday, March 15, 2012

POLITICA - Anti-Voter Laws, Update

"Waging a Battle Over Voter ID Laws" PBS Newshour 3/14/2012

Excerpt

GWEN IFILL (Newshour): A Wisconsin judge and the U.S. Justice Department moved separately this week to derail two new state voter identification laws. Since last year, eight state legislatures have moved to tighten access to the polls by requiring voters to show photo I.D. before they cast a ballot.

Overall, 16 states have passed or enacted a variety of poll access laws. The Justice Department said the Texas law passed last year could disenfranchise Hispanic voters. And two judges in Wisconsin declared that state's newer law amounted to voter suppression. But coast to coast, the debate is just beginning to heat up.

For an update on the ongoing dispute, we turn to Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, and Hans Von Spakovsky, manager of the Civil Justice Reform Initiative at the Heritage Foundation. He served in the Justice Department during the George W. Bush administration.

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