Progress Now Action

Nothing is more infuriating than to see Republicans using the voter fraud meme to steal the right to vote from elderly Americans.  This is the truth of the matter: The efforts of Republicans to have picture I.D. with birth certificates at polling centers is disenfranchising the elderly from their right to vote. 

What is amazing is that the largest senior citizen organization, A.A.R.P., is  doing little to halt this Republican led movement to disenfranchise the elderly at least at the national level. (I will point out that the 2008 Advocacy Agenda by AARP does list voter I.D. as a "burdensome document requirement".)  State A.A.R.P. organizations are more on the ball: 

The A.A.R.P. of Texas, in January of 2008, released this:

AUSTIN, TX – As many as 18 percent of voters age 65 or older could be negatively impacted by efforts to enact stricter voter identification requirements, an AARP Texas official said today in testimony before the House Elections Committee.

Amanda Fredriksen, AARP Texas manager of advocacy, noted there has been little if any evidence of election fraud in Texas to date to justify any such measure, calling voter ID proposals “a solution in search of a problem.”

The Michigan A.A.R.P. has filed an amicus brief in 2006:

AARP has filed a friend of the court brief in the Michigan Supreme Court challenging a state law that would require voters to produce a photo ID in order to cast a ballot at the polls.The case, In re Request for Advisory Opinion Regarding Constitutionality of 2005 PA 71, was initiated by the Court itself, which has called for briefs to be filed on the matter by the state’s Attorney General and other interested parties.Based on these submissions, the Court will issue an “advisory opinion” regarding the 2005 law.

The Indiana A.A.R.P., in 2005, expressed concern:

The head of Indiana's chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons says a new state law requiring Hoosier voters to show an ID at the polls could put a burden on older, ailing Hoosiers who don't have driver's licenses.
State AARP director Nancy Griffin said a recent survey by the group found that 10 percent of registered Indiana voters age 60 and older lack driver's licenses.

In 2002 the A.A.R.P. of Pennsylvania held this position:

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- AARP Pennsylvania opposes Senate Bill 824 which would require Pennsylvanians to produce photo identification in order to vote in the Commonwealth.

Digby has a story:

Perhaps no one knows that as well as 97-year-old Shirley Freeda Preiss. She was born at home in Clinton, Kentucky in 1910, before women had the right to vote, and never had a birth certificate. Shirley has voted in every presidential election since FDR first ran in 1932, and proudly describes herself as a "died-in-the-wool Democrat." After living in Arizona for two years, she was eagerly looking forward to casting her ballot in the February primary for the first major woman candidate for President, Hillary Clinton. But lacking a birth certificate or even elementary school records to prove she's a native-born American citizen, the state of Arizona's bureaucrats determined that this former school-teacher who taught generations of Americans shouldn't be allowed to vote.

"I have a constitutional right to vote, don't I?" she asks with her soft Southern drawl. "I didn't get to vote because of a birth certificate. What am I going to do now?"

Her strong-willed 78-year-old son, Nathan "Joey" Nemnich, a World War II veteran, is infuriated. "I'm pissed. She's an American citizen who worked her whole life and I want her to vote," he says. He went down to the local Motor Vehicle Division to get her an Arizona ID and register her to vote, armed with copies of his mother's three drivers' licenses from her previous home in Texas, along with copies of her Social Security and Medicare cards. All that wasn't good enough for the state of Arizona. "The sons of bitches are taking away our Constitution," Nemnich says.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights states in 2007:

First, no citizen should have to pay to vote. This basic principle, a key inspiration for the Twenty-Fourth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, would be greatly undermined by the McConnell amendment. While it is difficult for most people to imagine living without a photo ID, it is indisputable that many individuals do not have one – and it costs time and money to obtain it...

The right to vote, and to have your vote counted, is the most important civil right that we Americans have. And photo ID requirements are one of the greatest threats to fair and equal voting rights today. Congress should be in the business of encouraging full participation of our citizenry, not developing ways to limit the right to vote.