by Adam B
Joan McCarter has been dogged on these pages in
documenting Republican efforts to prevent traditionally Democratic voters from voting through
new restrictions on voter registration and early voting, as well as burdensome identification laws.
As today's WSJ reports,
the Obama campaign has noticed as well, and is fighting back:
By this spring, the Obama re-election campaign will mount what Mr. Bauer called an unprecedented "voter protection" effort, fielding thousands of volunteers in battleground states to help navigate new election laws, months earlier than past efforts.
"We will look at what the state has done, look for ways to counter it, through litigation sometimes, through administrative interpretation sometimes. But beyond that, you have to have a program that actually goes out and shows voters what they need to do," a senior Obama campaign official said....
More than 30 states have changed voter laws since 2008, including seven that added requirements that voters show photo identification at their polling places. Republicans say limits on early voting are needed to cut the administrative costs of elections, and new I.D. requirements are necessary to defend polling places from fraud.
Democrats say both types of rules are aimed at suppressing their vote. The Obama campaign was adept in 2008 at bringing first-time voters to the polls during early voting periods, and groups it's now targeting—students, the elderly and the poor—are the most likely to not have a government-issued photo I.D.
In Ohio,
Obama for America helped gather over 300,000 signatures, successfully blocking Republican efforts to restrict early voting. In Wisconsin, efforts are focusing on voter education to counter the state's new Voter ID law, which bars students from using their college IDs when voting.
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