GOP Resurrecting Jim Crow in Wisconsin

"Jim Crow move over, the Wisconsin Republicans have taken your place," said state Sen. Bob Jauch, a Democrat from Poplar, Wis., comparing his state's new voter ID law to segregationist policies.

Under the new law, voters will for the first time be required to show photo identification this summer in recall elections seeking to unseat several Republican legislators who pushed through Gov. Scott Walker's highly unpopular anti-union bill. Voters will be asked to show drivers' licenses, state IDs, passports, military IDs, naturalization papers or tribal IDs. College IDs will not be accepted.

"Hundreds of thousands of people will stay home because of this legislation," said Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Milwaukee. "By the time Republican senators are done it will be easier to carry a concealed weapon than it will be to vote."

To make matters even worse, the Republican-run state election board is in charge of running a public education campaign about the new law and the Republican-run legislature has not allocated any funds for the campaign. Republicans are expected next to oppose even the issuing of free state ID cards.

Scarier still, is that Wisconsin-style Jim Crow voter ID laws are in the works now in at least 22 states.

keep reading: http://www.peoplesworld.org/jim-crow-move-over-the-wisconsin-gop-is-here/

BUT WHY IS THIS NOT CRIMINAL? Discrimination? Class-action suits? Can't anything be done to stop this FUCKING BULLSHIT?????????? i swear to gods ... this is one thing the Rs are doing that offends me ALMOST as much as the anti-women laws they're pushing through.

it's too early in the morning for me here. too damned depressing. besides that, my damned labrador is fading on me and will probably have to put him down today (actually, my boy Linus is the one and only being who has kept me sane these past few years and this is going to be REALLY hard ...)

hell- half the shit they pull should/or possibly is...

The important thing to take away is that we, who live in these states, need to be AWARE of these changes- and educate everyone we know. If we can beat them at their own rigged, unfair game we can reverse this shit.

i consider myself moderately intelligent and moderately informed, and i'm confused. wonder how the poor/elderly will make out!!?? at first i thought it was going to affect just the first-time voters, now i'm not sure. and as maddow put it last night, that's entirely their intent ... confuse the heck out of the electorate.

i'm so pissed i don't know what to do. i feel like punching a hole in the wall.

what is most despicable to me is: here is this beautiful planet earth, spinning through space and all (breathing its last breaths, thanks to its human polluters). and in this *exceptional* republic with this grand, wonderful, EQUALIZING concept of democracy, there actually exist people -- elected POLS, no less -- who are willfully and gleefully undermining it. NOW, when i compare this grand, wonderful experiment called democracy in the USA alongside, say, the murderous dictatorships of SYRIA, i find myself needing to feel GRATEFUL that at least i'm not being pulled out of my home at gunpoint!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is what is pissing me off the most.

thanks for letting me rant, and i apologize for my language.

At the least there would need to be more lead time and education to inform people of the change. This is akin to moving voting sites and not informing people of the change in a timely fashion. You can't do that shit.

that part is good news, but timely? in time for recall elections?

based on the likelihood that the plaintiffs could be successful and the harm that would be done by allowing the law to go forward. Basically any changes to election law, even if Constitutional, need to allow ample time to inform the public. No surprises allowed that could potentially disenfranchise eligible voters.

In , a 1966 decision, the Supreme Court held that "a state violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution whenever it makes the affluence of the voter or payment of any fee an electoral standard." If the state requires the voter to show a state-issued identification but charges a fee for any such document, then it's requiring "payment of any fee" as a condition for voting.

If the state were to issue an ID without charge, it would still depress turnout, but there would be a better case for its legality.

as this will be rover+'s approach to keeping the House, as well as instituting numerous abhorent practices/schemes in States throughout the country.

We/Dems are on notice, and MUST NOT fail to address this, STILL STEALING ELECTIONS.

Dems showed their cowardice last time (GWB 'selection') and if we permit this to stand, we'll have more of the same FOREVER!

They just don't care, because by the time this law is challenged in court, the election will be long over, and the damage will have already been done.

So why should the Republicans?

he's got to be the most useless AG ever.

Steal elections and legislate away our basic civil rights.Nasty bunch of sleazes.

We'll have to get out the hazmat suits-to clean up the mess ALEC and their whores

have made of this country if we get the chance.The Dems need to act-and fast

I've been waiting for info on how I can help spread info, we need to get it out there.

Sad to say you're right, they don't give a shit if it's legal or not.

They are backed by big $$.

This can be mitigated if we are well organized, we do have numbers.