Election laws tightening in GOP-run states

[jefferson_dem]

Election laws tightening in GOP-run states

Republicans in states like Florida are making it more challenging to vote or to register others. Democrats say it's an effort to disenfranchise students, the elderly, the poor, the disabled and minorities — and to unseat President Obama.
By David G. Savage, Washington Bureau

October 30, 2011, 10:19 p.m.
Reporting from Tallahassee, Fla.— Barack Obama may have won this crucial state three years ago on the Sunday before election day when "souls to the polls" drives brought a surge of blacks and Latinos to cast ballots after church.

Florida had opened the polls two weeks early, and even so, long lines across the state prompted the governor to issue an emergency order extending the hours for early voting. Propelled by waves of new voters including college students, Obama eked out a win with 51%.

It will be different next year, a result of changes in the voting laws adopted by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Early voting was reduced from two weeks to one week. Voting on the Sunday before election day was eliminated. College students face new hurdles if they want to vote away from home. And those who register new voters face the threat of fines for procedural errors, prompting the nonpartisan League of Women Voters to suspend voter registration drives and accuse the Legislature of "reverting to Jim Crow-like tactics."

<SNIP>

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-vote-florida-20111031,0,1962738.story

[bigdarryl]

1. As Joe Madison says WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT!!