GOP Attempts to Suppress Voting Bite Them on Ass [View all]

[MineralMan]

With the news that Newt Gingrich doesn't qualify for the Virginia Primary, the GOP's attempts to suppress voting in many states has come back to hurt GOP candidates. New voting regulations in Virginia now require election officials to cross-check signatures on primary petitions with current addresses. That was one of the strategies the GOP has been trying to implement in various states in an attempt to suppress voting.

Trouble is, that very process has cost Newt Gingrich an opportunity to run in Virginia's primary election, since too many of the signatures on petitions to put him on the ballot ended up being eliminated through this address checking.

The Republican party seems determined to eliminate itself, and doesn't even know it. Other measures designed to disenfranchise people may have similar effects. For example, the state-issued photo ID requirements in many states may eliminate a number of older persons who no longer drive and who haven't gotten state IDs because they don't need them. The new requirements for such IDs may well eliminate many of those older persons from even being able to get a state-issued ID, due to documentation requirements that may be difficult to meet. Older voters tend to vote for Republicans on average, so the GOP is actually eliminating its own voters in the process of trying to disenfranchise the poor and other groups.

Way to go, GOOPers! Way to cut off your own noses to spite your face!