There was some good news to report just as the ACLU's Voting Rights Project launched their new campaign: Wisconsin, Texas voter ID laws blocked by courts.
We've still got a long way to go, and Lewis Black is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore: Restrict voting rights? Not on comedian Lewis Black’s watch:
Comedian Lewis Black has found something new to get angry about.
In an online video produced by the American Civil Liberties Union and shared exclusively with msnbc, the famously furious funnyman, who’s serving as the ACLU’s “celebrity ambassador” on voting rights, goes apoplectic when he learns that some politicians are trying to make it harder for people to cast a ballot. [...]
In the video, Dale Ho, the director of the ACLU’s voting rights program, tells Black about cuts to early voting that have affected millions. Then Ho explains that voter ID laws like Wisconsin’s force many people to pay a fee in order to vote—meaning they’re essentially poll taxes.
Finally, Ho shows Black a diagram of the complex bureaucratic hurdles that would-be voters must navigate just to get an ID.
It’s enough to make Black’s head explode.
“Elected officials shouldn’t get to choose who gets to choose elected officials,” he yells. “Look, people marched and fought and died for the right to vote, and they want to legislate away that sacrifice to stay in power? Not on my watch, baby.”
The ACLU also released an open letter from Black, addressed to “all politicians who’ve ever tried to block access to voting.” It doesn’t pull any punches. “What the hell is the matter with you people?! You need to get your head on straight,” Black writes. “The cornerstone of this great country is the right to vote – and you should be fighting to make sure that every citizen who can vote, does! But instead you’re creating obstacles for voters? Well, that makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it … F*** that!” Read on...
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