Letter to Editor: Republicans Want to Take Away Some Voting Rights

Dear Cascade Patch:

One of the most concerted efforts to take away the voting rights of Americans is well underway and far too many people are sitting silently back and not engaging their local politicians about their concerns.

Despite all of the hysteria and claims from those advocating the new voting laws and restrictions, "Out of the 300 million votes cast in that period (2008 Presidential Election), federal prosecutors convicted only 86 people for voter fraud—and many of the cases involved immigrants and former felons who were simply unaware of their ineligibility."

According to an Aug. 30, 2011, Rolling Stone article, "The GOP War on Voting," Republican officials have begun an "unprecedented, centrally coordinated campaign to suppress the elements of the Democratic vote that elected Barack Obama in 2008."

"Just as Dixiecrats once used poll taxes and literacy tests to bar black Southerners from voting, a new crop of GOP governors and state legislators has passed a series of seemingly disconnected measures that could prevent millions of students, minorities, immigrants, ex-convicts and the elderly from casting ballots." 

I hope that you will continue to spread the message that we must do our part to preserve the benefits of freedom that our foreparents fought so hard to attain for us and future generations.

I would just ask that you share the following article with all of your friends and colleagues that are a part of your personal and social network. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-gop-war-on-voting-20110830.

The rights you preserve might be your own!

Sincerely,

Artis Johnson, Cascade Patch subscriber