Voter ID laws spark heated debate before U.S. election

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/05/us-usa-campaign-voterid-idUSBRE83400W20120405?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FPoliticsNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Politics+News%29

Liberal activists on Wednesday criticized new voter registration requirements in dozens of states, saying millions of people could be deterred from voting in the November U.S. presidential election - a claim their opponents disputed.

The Center for American Progress issued a report that said new barriers to voting have been enacted by conservative state legislatures with the aim of disenfranchising voters from among certain groups such as low-income voters, minorities and college students. Those constituencies have tended to favor Democrats.

"The right to vote is under attack all across our country," the group said in a report that launched the latest salvo in the growing war of racially tinged rhetoric over new voter ID requirements.

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Representative James Clyburn, the highest-ranking African American in Congress, said he was more upset about the trend of toughening up the voting laws than he was when he was jailed for civil rights protests in South Carolina in the 1960s.