Voting: A Democratic Right?

Voting is the premise of a democratic society.  I'm sure that almost everyone, from any political affiliation, will agree to the previous statement.  And it's hard to forget the "Get Out the Vote" commercials and various other initiatives at attempting to have more people participate in the political process.  So then why would a country that prides itself on freedom, continually mentioned as the greatest country in the world and the backbone of democracy across the world, be trying to take it away from its own people?  It just doesn't make sense!

Now don't get me wrong, it's not the whole country suppressing the vote; only 13 (+4 that have had it for some time) states so far have passed legislation or had executive orders recently (that I am aware of, there are more than likely other states) that created obstacles for voting, restricted voter eligibility, restricted two popular programs: absentee and early voting, and made it more difficult to restore voting rights to current tax payers that were previously convicted of a felony.

So who are the culprits?
In case it's hard to see:
Using photo ID requirements: Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Kansas, Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, and back in 2006 Indiana started this whole thing.
Proof of citizenship requirements: Kansas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Arizona.
Restrictions on voter registration: Ohio, Texas, Florida, Maine, and Wisconsin.
Restrictions on early and absentee voting: Ohio, West Virginia, Tennessee, Florida, and Georgia.
Reversal of voter eligibility for prior felons (Now they are ineligible): Iowa and Florida.  Kentucky and Virginia impose life-long denial of the right to vote to all citizens with a felony record.

Just from looking at the map, it seems pretty clear that the majority, or at least the trend for these voter suppression laws, is centered around the southern states.  Looking at these states made me curious to find out the political leadership of each of them.  Here is what I came up with:

In the seventeen states that are in the above spreadsheet, all but two have Republican Governors (Chafee is a special case because he is a former Republican that ran as an Independent).  Also, the majority in the state legislatures is almost all Republican, except for in Rhode Island, West Virginia, the senate in Virginia and Iowa, and the house in Kentucky.  But even then, Democrats in West Virginia, Iowa, and Kentucky are hardly anything close to being left-wing; more so they are very centrist and on occasion, have the same mentality as those on the right (as can be seen by the voter suppression laws).

Some may ask, why these states?  Well my answer is fairly simple: elections!  The 2012 presidential election is coming up soon and a good deal of the battleground states (states that could be going for either party, a toss-up if you will) have enacted voter suppression laws.  Let's have a peak at these states.  Florida, the deciding factor in the 2000 election, is featured prominently here.  Without Florida, the Democrats have a very small chance of winning the 2012 election, but with it it is almost a certainty of a win.  Ohio, also featured prominently here, is the other large battleground state. Winning Ohio and another battleground state will give the Democrats the win.  Wisconsin and Iowa, also battleground states, have passed voter suppression laws.  What do these four states have in common?  If you can see from the chart above, they all have a Republican Governor and a Republican majority in the state legislature.

Voter suppression this and vote suppression that..yadda yadda yadda.  Who does it target???  Minorities, the working class, the elderly, immigrants, and former felons.  I know not many people have warm feelings for former felons but everyone deserves a second chance, especially when their basic right is being taken away from them.  You can now see why voter suppression laws were passed!  A lot of Democratic support stems from minorities, the working class, and immigrants.  And by taking it away from their rival party, they are essentially trying to secure the election by denying people their right to vote.  The elderly are more or less SOL (shit out of luck).  The photo ID requirement is one of those things that stops people from voting because many do not have a government issued ID; since many elderly do not drive anymore, they have no need for a driver's license and do not have a mode of convenient transportation to obtain a photo ID to be able to vote.  The same goes for the working class, a good number cannot afford cars and therefore do not feel they need a driver's license.

Now I will present to you the WTF moment of the year.  The Wisconsin budget battle has had national attention for a long time now but what has not been highly reported is what they means for voters.  With the photo ID law passed in Wisconsin, its citizens must obtain a government issued ID to vote.  But the governor has done a clever (purely objective) but not yet illegal thing: he closed down DMV / MVA buildings in Democratic districts where citizens go and get their photo IDs, while keeping the DMVs / MVAs in Republican districts running in order to make it harder for what seems like Democratic voters to get their photo ID so they can vote.  One obstacle after another.  What the governor is pretty much saying without actually saying it is "Screw you!" to the people that did not vote for him.  And thus he is participating in the rigging of the 2012 presidential election.  How a lawsuit hasn't come out of this I do not know, but this is clearly disenfranchising a certain part of the population of the right to vote...the most basic right in a democratic society.