Friday, May 09, 2014

Paul Says G.O.P. Push on Voting Laws Is Alienating Blacks

MEMPHIS — Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky on Friday broke with fellow Republicans who have pushed for stricter voting laws as a way to crack down on fraud, saying the party was alienating and insulting African-Americans.

“Everybody’s gone completely crazy on this voter ID thing,” Mr. Paul said in an interview on Friday, adding that much of the bitterness in the debate over voting rights was wrapped up in race. “I think it’s wrong for Republicans to go too crazy on this issue because it’s offending people.”

Mr. Paul traveled to Memphis — a mostly black city and a Democratic stronghold with its own painful racial history — to speak at the spring meeting of the Republican National Committee. But before he talked to his fellow Republicans, he sat down with a group of black pastors to discuss his views on voting, public education and antipoverty policy.
Read the rest here.

3 comments:

The Anti-Gnostic said...

I last voted in 1991. I don't remember the process being too difficult. The requirement of a state-issued ID seems what any sensible democracy would require.

The Archer of the Forest said...

As a previous victim of voter fraud (showed up and was told I had already voted), I really don't have a problem with showing ID.

I mean, you have to show ID to get any federal poverty benefits like food stamps or to cash a check. I don't know who these hoards of people living in caves who don't have ID's are and how they function in modern society.

John (Ad Orientem) said...

I agree that being required to show some sort of ID should not be too onerous for any who wants to vote. But then again I think we have gotten a bit too liberal with the franchise.