Voter Registration, Voter Suppression | featured news

A man originally reported to have been working for the Republican Party of Virginia was arrested by the Rockingham County, Va., Sheriff’s Office on Thursday and charged with attempting to destroy voter registration forms by tossing them into a dumpster behind a shopping center in Harrisonburg, Va.

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a challenge to Florida's recent voter purge efforts, clearing the way for the removal of about 200 suspected non-U.S. citizens from state voter rolls before the November 6 presidential election.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is conducting an investigating of alleged fraud involving a company hired to register voters by the state's Republican Party.

...Mary Blackwell said the league's Okaloosa County chapter held a voter registration drive at a college campus in Niceville and that a person who was registering voters told her he was "lucky" he only had applications from Republicans or independents -- Blackwell said she was "distressed" by the comments and became worried that he may be discarding voter registration forms filled out by Democrats.

Dozens of states, including Mississippi, have changed their election procedures. Some states require voters to show government-issued photo IDs. Others have reduced the time period when voters can cast ballots early and have imposed new limits on third-party groups that register new voters... Opponents, mostly Democrats and civil rights groups, say the changes will suppress turnout, particularly among blacks, the elderly and the poor.