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Battle Of The Ballot Box

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Voter ID.  We’ll look at the great battle of 2012 over who will have access to the ballot box.

In this June 19, 2012 file photo, Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann holds a postcard to help identify voters in need of a free state government issued card that will be issued through his office at no charge, in Jackson, Miss. More than two dozen states have some form of ID requirement, and 11 of those passed new rules over the past two years largely at the urging of Republicans who say they want to prevent fraud. (AP)
In this June 19, 2012 file photo, Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann holds a postcard to help identify voters in need of a free state government issued card that will be issued through his office at no charge, in Jackson, Miss. More than two dozen states have some form of ID requirement, and 11 of those passed new rules over the past two years largely at the urging of Republicans who say they want to prevent fraud. (AP)

We’re in October.  A month and change to Election Day.  First presidential debate, this week in Denver.  But the battle over the shape of the electorate has been raging for months and years.  Republicans, pushing voter ID laws and more in state after state.  Steps that make it harder to vote.  For clean elections, they say.

Democrats fighting tooth and nail, in courts and on the ground, for access they say.  It’s an odd issue to be so hot.  American elections look pretty clean.  But it’s big.  Potentially decisive.

This hour, On Point:  the great battle of 2012 over who will get to the ballot box.
-Tom Ashbrook

Guests

James Hohmann, national political reporter for Politico.

Justin Levitt, associate professor of law at Loyola Law School.

Michael Bekesha, staff attorney for Judicial Watch.

Daniel Smith, political science professor at the University of Florida.

From Tom's Reading List

L.A. Times "The Republican National Committee has abruptly cut ties to a consulting firm hired for get-out-the-vote efforts in seven presidential election swing states after Florida prosecutors launched an investigation into possible fraud in voter registration forms."

Election Law Blog "The piece is primarily about the impact of voter fraud. There are pieces with which I agree. But there are also some disturbingly familiar slips. I’ve prepared a thorough annotation, noting that which is correct, that which is correct but misleading or irrelevant, and that which is simply false. More, after the jump."

The New York Times "This is how voter intimidation worked in 1966: White teenagers in Americus, Ga., harassed black citizens in line to vote, and the police refused to intervene. Black plantation workers in Mississippi had to vote in plantation stores, overseen by their bosses. Black voters in Choctaw County, Ala., had to hand their ballots directly to white election officials for inspection."

This program aired on October 1, 2012.

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