11/2/11, "Obama Aims at Election Laws," Wall St. Journal, Weisman, Lee
CHICAGO—"The Obama re-election campaign has quietly opened a counteroffensive against Republican-backed changes to election laws that Democrats say will suppress votes for their candidates and limit their get-out-the-vote drives.
The effort, led by former White House counsel Robert Bauer, prompted the suspension of an Ohio law limiting early voting. Campaign officials produced educational materials to counter a Wisconsin law that requires voters to produce photo I.D.s—but disallows those used by Wisconsin colleges.
By this spring, the Obama re-election campaign will mount what Mr. Bauer called an unprecedented "voter protection" effort, fielding thousands of volunteers in battleground states to help navigate new election laws, months earlier than past efforts.
"We will look at what the state has done, look for ways to counter it, through litigation sometimes, through administrative interpretation sometimes. But beyond that, you have to have a program that actually goes out and shows voters what they need to do," a senior Obama campaign official said.
Hans von Spakovsky, a former Federal Election Commission board member now with the right-leaning Heritage Foundation, said there's no evidence the new voter laws would suppress Democratic voters. But he says there is evidence of fraud. On Monday, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced the arrest of eight people who allegedly stuffed the ballot box in a Madison County, Fla., school board election with fraudulently obtained absentee ballots.Similar efforts have begun in Florida, which has cut the early voting period in half and eliminated early voting on the Sunday before the election. Rod Smith, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, said his office coordinates daily with the Obama campaign on how to encourage older voters, college students and African Americans to vote by absentee ballot. The message is: "They believe they can keep you from voting. Don't let it happen."
Florida also added rules requiring independent groups that are registering voters to submit their forms within 48 hours of completion. Such groups now face fines of up to $1,000 per form that contains errors or is submitted late.
The rules prompted the League of Women Voters to suspend voter-registration efforts and file suit to stop the law. "It basically would require our volunteers to have an attorney on one side and an administrative assistant on the other," said Dierdre MacNab, president of its Florida affiliate.
Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Florida, said the GOP is not alleging widespread voter fraud. "We don't wait until the bank is robbed to install up-to-date security systems," he said. Florida's new voting law "isn't a voter suppression act.
This is a fraudulent suppression act."
In the past, both parties sent volunteers to watch for efforts to hamper voting. Next year, the Obama campaign is promising to send its "voter protection teams" into the field in the spring, earlier than the usual start in September of an election year."
via Sharon Calvert, Tampa Tea Party
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