AFL-CIO pushing back against voter ID

Published by Tim McNulty on Tuesday, 12 June 2012 2:47 pm.

The AFL-CIO plans to push voter ID education/mobilization efforts in Pennsylvania and other presidential battleground states, the Hill reports today:

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker told reporters on Tuesday that the labor federation will have boots on the ground registering and helping voters in Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in coordination with the group’s political program.

Labor is pushing back against voter ID laws, which they say suppress voting by minorities, the elderly, the poor and students. Supporters of the measures say showing identification to vote is needed to crack down on fraud and protect the integrity of elections.

Baker said the AFL-CIO would execute its “most aggressive push” yet against the ID laws in 2012.

“This year, we will be running the strongest voter protection program ever. This will be our most aggressive push, and we have never done anything on this scale before because the attacks that we are seeing on the right to vote are unprecedented,” Baker said, calling voter ID laws passed in several states “a modern-day version of a poll tax and a new form of Jim Crow.”

Voters in this morning's Quinnipiac poll largely supported Pa's new voter ID legislation.

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AFL-CIO pushing back against voter ID

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