If there’s any question that voter ID laws and other supposed ways to protect voters being rushed into action in states — and now particularly in Southern states now that the Supreme Court has disembowled part of the Voting Rights Act — you should doubt no longer given the comments of Pennsylvania GOP Chairman Rob Gleason. He almost gleefully admits here that the Pennsylvania voter ID law helped “shave” Obama’s victory.
All the spin you hear from Republican governors and legislators is just that: because Republicans are having trouble increasing their vote among quickly growing demograhic groups (i.e. minority voters) they are now trying to keep them from voting. And, yes, it’s all couched in a)legality b)spin that is broadcast by the conservative entertainment media then vomited up by many conservative news sites.
But even a head of lettuce at Vons grocery on Adams Avenue in San Diego has seen this for what it is.
And now Mr. Gleason has given us a matter of fact, almost joyous declaration of how it helped decrease Obama’s margin.
These efforts are going on as you read this post.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.