Let's take a quick tour of the voter-suppression activities under way across the nation.
In the past year, 19 new laws and two executive orders were issued in 14 states to create stricter voter identification requirements. These measures were supported and passed largely by Republicans after gaining control of state legislatures and governors' offices in 2010. Their aim is to constrict the electorate for 2012 and beyond.
Voter-suppression efforts take one of two complementary forms: restricting ballot access by enacting new or stronger identification requirements for voters to register, and limiting the time window during which voters can register, such as eliminating same-day registration and voting.
In either form, ballot restrictions disproportionately disfranchise poorer and nonwhite voters, as well as senior citizens and college-age students. How do we know this? A report by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice showed that an estimated 11 percent of Americans lack a government-issued photo identification with a current, accurate address. But the shares of Americans in the groups mentioned above who lack an ID are higher.
Younger, poorer and nonwhite voters lean overwhelmingly Democratic, of course. And although Republicans generally fare well among seniors — they were the only age cohort John McCain carried over Barack Obama in 2008 — many of the seniors lacking proper identification are poor, urban minorities also unlikely to support the GOP.
One need not summon Sherlock Holmes to explain why Republicans, losers of the popular vote in four of the past five presidential elections, have a greater vested interest in ballot restriction measures: Constricting the electorate improves their electoral fortunes. Like gerrymandering, voter identification is an attempt by strategic politicians to pick their voters, rather than the other way around. In effect, Republicans are admitting they're not sure they can win elections by offering better policies or stronger leadership.
The key organization behind the voter identification movement is the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC and its defenders claim they are vigilant "small-d" democrats fighting the plague of voter fraud. When pressed to cite actual examples of ineligible persons voting illegally, however, they cite only a few, isolated cases of fraud. "Voter impersonation is an illusion," says Brennan Center executive director Michael Waldman.
