[SHOCKER]: Dispatch (R-Columbus) Publishes Column Detailing GOP Assault on Voting Rights

One of the sneakiest and sleaziest items on the GOP agenda following their 2010 victories is an all-out assault on the right to vote. Knowing that President Obama's 2008 victory was assisted by large turnout from the poor, students and minorities, the GOP is passing law after law designed to make it harder for these groups to vote. Oneorous voter ID requirements, shortened early voting periods, restricting absentee balloting, etc. 

Even more amazing than this GOP assault on the most fundamental of American's basic rights, is that the Dispatch (R-Columbus) published a column calling them out on it. I'm in shock!

An attack on the right to vote is under way across the country through laws designed to make it more difficult to cast a ballot.

The laws are being passed in the name of preventing “voter fraud.” But study after study has shown that fraud by voters is not a major problem — and is less of a problem than how hard many states make it for people to vote in the first place. Some of the laws, such as limiting the number of days for early voting, have little plausible connection to battling fraud.

These statutes are not neutral. Their greatest impact will be to reduce turnout among African-Americans, Latinos and the young. It is no accident that these groups were key to Barack Obama’s victory in 2008 — or that the laws in question are being enacted in states where Republicans control state governments.

Think of what this would look like to a dispassionate observer. A party wins an election, as the GOP did in 2010. Then it changes the election laws in ways that benefit itself. In a democracy, the electorate is supposed to pick the politicians. With these laws, politicians are shaping their electorates.