Idaho only state not restricting minority voting rights

Idaho may be a red state, but when it comes to practicing Republican soft racism against blacks by restricting voting rights, The Potato State passes. It is the only one of fifty since 2,000 to have a clean record on Republicans' favorite way of dishonoring democratic ideals.

In 2011 and 2012, 180 new voting restrictions were introduced in forty-one states, with new laws adopted in nineteen states that made it harder to vote. Many were overturned in court but two years ago the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in Shelby County v. Holder. As a result 21 states implemented voting rights restrictions last year. From 2011 to 2015, 395 new voting restrictions have been introduced in forty-nine states. Half the states in the country have adopted measures making it harder to vote. The fifteen states previously required to pre clear their voting changes with Uncle Sam under the 1965 law, have been the most ferocious in restricting voting rights since that unfortunate Supreme Court case.

Bear in mind that voting restrictions don't just involve voter ID laws. They also include shortening registration and early voting, shutting down voter registration drives, disenfranchising ex-felons; even attempting to re-instate a form of poll tax. In the first few weeks of this year alone, forty new restrictions were introduced in 17 states.

Between 2000 and 2013, when the Supremes decided it was no longer necessary, 148 objections to new voting rights restrictions were filed under the Voting Rights Act in 29 states. Anti democratic Texas led the pack of shameful states with 30 complaints.

Yesterday, Democrats introduced the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015 to reinstate the protections nullified by Shelby County v. Holder. Republicans, feverishly working against democratic ideals to disenfranchise millions to have a sliver of a chance in 2016, want nothing to do with extending voting rights to all.

I'll be lobbying my Republican Senator Kirk and Republican Congressman Roskam to support the VRAA of 2015. Knowing their heartlessness to the newly disenfranchised, that will be a challenge. And in a symbolic nod to the lone holdout among states, I think I'll order an Idaho baked potato at my next restaurant meal.