The ACLU is at it again, demanding that voters be allowed to vote early or vote on the same day as they register or vote without authorized picture I.D. Restricting these voter conveniences are among the tactics of voter suppression laws taking the south and parts of the midwest by storm. The flurry of state legislation restricting registration and voting was sparked by the Supreme Court’s overturning of key provisions in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The latest case against voting restrictions is pending in North Carolina, where a coalition of voting rights organizations, including the League of Women Voters, is arguing that the new state law should be rolled back for November. According to the ACLU, the law threatens the votes of 900,000 North Carolinians, over a third of them African Americans.

The provisions, already used in the May primary, eliminated same-day registration during early voting, reduced the early-voting period by a week and eliminated the counting of ballots cast on election day outside of a person’s home precinct. Voters also are being told at the polls to prepare for a photo-identification requirement in 2016. Political parties also can send in more observers to monitor voting (The Daily Tarheel, September 25, 2014)

It is no coincidence that most of the states authorizing these kinds of voter restriction laws are battleground states in the November elections. North Carolina itself has a highly-contested Senatorial  election pitting incumbent Democrat Kay Hagen against Republican legislator Tom Tillis.  The polls show the two in a dead heat.

It is more than sad that the right to vote has become a target of manipulation in the past year. Not satisfied with gerry-mandering the voting districts across the nation, state legislatures have moved to suppress voters who will most likely vote Democratic this fall. Not satisfied with closing precincts where minorities typically vote, the new laws add to the burden of minority voters through restrictive registration and voter identification laws.

The North Carolina law is representative of new voting restrictions in one-third of the states, mostly in the south, but just as telling in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri and Wisconsin.  The Republican legislators who enacted these laws purport to target cases of voting fraud, probably numbering less than 100, in order to restrict hundreds of thousands of citizens who might vote for Democratic candidates.

Attacking the right to vote is the most contemptible use of power in the mud-wrestling of partisan politics. For legislators who are sworn to defend Constitutional rights it is the height of hypocrisy to suppress voting privileges, especially among those already disenfranchised. It harkens back to years when African-Americans were not counted as people and women were barred from the ballot box. It cuts to the heart of democracy. It is the opposite of patriotism.

Not everything the ACLU does inspires non-partisan fervor, but advocating for voters in states where voting rights are under attack is their most patriotic cause. Their petition to restore the “full power of the Voting Rights Amendment Act” deserves the signature of citizens across the political spectrum. Their fund-raising to attack voter suppression laws in court deserves financial support, no matter how modest.

Let people vote!