GOP Is Even More Brazen in Its Voter Suppression

From Political Strategy Notes:

In his MSNBC.com report "Wisconsin GOP aims to scrap weekend voting," Zachary Roth explains "The measure, which passed the state assembly Thursday, would give municipalities two choices for early voting, known in the state as in-person absentee voting: they could offer it either from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays in the two weeks before an election; or at any time on a weekday, but not to exceed 30 hours per week, again in the two weeks before an election...That would mean a reduction in early voting hours for the state's two biggest cities, Milwaukee and Madison--which are also its most important Democratic strongholds...Scrapping weekend voting will hit African-Americans particularly hard, Rev. Willie Brisco, who leads an alliance of Milwaukee churches, told MSNBC..."A lot of people in our community are working two or three jobs, odd hours, having difficulty with childcare," said Brisco. "So the weekend and the early voting reaches a lot of those people."

I worked early voting on weekends as an elections inspector, and the voters are often the elderly, the disabled, and couples with young children, voters reregistering early because they have moved, and people with questions.

In major statewide elections, the lines to register and the lines to vote increase on election day are often long, as the Republicans Party wants.

As for the GOP's other major attack on voting (though there many more), photo voter ID, if two elections inspectors were forced to inspect Photo Voter IDs of each voter, the GOP's proposed new extra-Constitutional qualification to vote would increase each voter's time at the polling table by approximately one minute.

May not seem much but if you have an average of 30 people lining up to vote, the time to vote for each voter is increased by the time each voter ahead of her has to spend at the polling book table, before walking over to vote.

And don't let Republicans tell you Photo Voter ID went well in February 2012, the one occasion it was used. In that local primary election day there were no statewide races, and voter turnout was estimated at some three percent, less in most parts of the state.