Earlier this week, Gov. Rick Snyder (R-Mich.) went against members of his own party and vetoed a voter ID law.
But not all is lost for those who want to suppress the vote.
In the past two years, five battleground states (Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) have tightened their voting laws, which disproportionately disenfranchise minorities, the young, the old and the poor.
And in Pennsylvania, the impact of a new voter ID law could be much bigger than Republicans had originally anticipated. Barack Obama won the state by the biggest majority of any candidate since 1972. But thanks to a new voter ID law, over 758,000 registered voters in Pennsylvania could be disenfranchised this November.
Republicans claim that these laws help prevent voter fraud. But here’s the truth: in the past decade, 649 million votes were cast in general elections. There were also 47,000 UFO sightings. 441 Americans were killed by lightning. And just 13 (yes,13) credible cases of in-person voter impersonation. This isn’t about voter fraud. This is about voter suppression.
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