Rolling back a woman's right to vote [View all]

[BainsBane]

The war on women advances: first undermining our right to control our bodies, whether through reproductive rights or rape, and now our right to vote.

Women have been allowed to vote in the United States since 1920. But fast-forward to 2013, and plenty of states are making it harder for women who are married or divorced to cast a ballot.

When Americans all over the country head to the polls on November 5 to vote on mayoral candidates, ballot initiatives, gubernatorial races, and even members of Congress, they will be up against a new kind of voter ID law that has mostly cropped up in 2012 and 2013 and disproportionately affects women—as well as transgender voters and anyone else with a name change.

Controversial voter ID laws, which GOP proponents say are intended to prevent the (pretty much nonexistent) crime of voting fraud, are nothing new, and they have been criticized for targeting low-income voters, young people, and minorities. But Texas's newly enforced voter ID law has put a spotlight on another group of voters that will be disproportionately affected by these rules. Not only must Texas voters present government-issue photo IDs to vote, but now poll workers are required under the law to check these IDs against an official voting registry to determine if the two names "substantially" match. That means that a woman who updated her voter registration when she got married, but not her driver's license or passport (and vice versa), could face additional hurdles in getting her ballot counted.

The Texas law may have drawn extra scrutiny because of the state's reputation for being a battleground in the "war on women"—but it's just one of many to adopt this type of provision. At least 9 other states' voting laws, most enacted in 2012 or 2013, use similar language. That doesn't count the 24 additional states with other kinds of voter ID laws, including some with looser photo ID rules that are still potentially problematic for women. In 2006, the Brennan Center found that 34 percent of voting-age women do not possess a proof-of-citizenship document that reflects their legal name, although updated statistics on photo IDs are hard to come by. And Slate points out that the law doesn't just affect Democrats, as Republican women are more likely change their names. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/voter-id-laws-married-women-texas-map

Ways to combat this 1) oppose voter ID laws; 2) don't change your name when you marry.
I changed my name, and when I changed it back after my divorce, I faced a world of bullshit, whereas changing it at marriage couldn't have been easier. This law, however, would restrict the vote of anyone undergoing a name change. I don't for a second believe it isn't intentionally directed at women. The Republicans know we vote Democratic, that our votes our responsible for every single Democratic win in this country.