Election 2012

Sometimes, Republicans Tell the Truth

Of course, it's often a bit of truth they didn't really mean to say in public in front of video cameras and microphones. For example, here's Pennsylvania House Republican Leader Mike Turzai revealing that Voter ID laws are all about electing Republicans:

Whoops! So Voter ID laws aren't about preventing rare instances of voter fraud, they're about electing Mitt Romney. Good to know.

And, shocker: Voter ID laws disenfranchise cross-sections of lower-income and minority Americans who tend to vote Democratic.

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, which opposes the laws, says as many as 5 million voters could be turned away at the polls. About 18 percent of seniors and 25 percent of African-Americans don't have state-issued photo identification, according to the center.

For one reason or another, they don't have access to ID facilities or can't afford to take a day off work to get an ID (making the ID a new form of the Jim Crow-era "poll tax") or, in some cases, they're worried they're going to be arrested when they apply. Hence, fewer Democratic voters. Insidious.