A tsunami of Republicans won state level elections in 2010, with a top priority for many of the victors the passage of election laws in 2011 that the GOP claims will cut down on voter fraud. The NCAAP and a host of other progressive groups have charged that these laws are really about voter suppression, and brought forth the charge once again, this time raised by Hillsborough/Pinellas state Senator Arthenia Joyner at a Monday morning news conference.
"This concerns everybody," she said of such laws. "Not just in Hillsborough or Florida, but every minority voter throughout the country who finds themselves a target of a thinly concealed nationwide effort to suppress the vote in the upcoming elections."
A lifelong activist when it comes to voting rights, Joyner said, "It appalls me that the right to vote that people fought for, marched for and sometimes died for is now a threat, and that's why it's so important that the black community participate in the upcoming elections. "
This article appears in Jul 5-11, 2012.