Are you concerned about new voter ID laws? Are we doing enough to prevent fraud and other problems? How can we make voting as accessible as possible while still safeguarding the democratic process?

It seems that history is repeating itself in terms of the disenfranchisement of poor and black people when it comes to voting rights. I was reading an article by Rev. Al Sharpton who had an interview with Florida’s former Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer appeared on his TV show, Politics Nation on MSNBC, and candidly discussed how the GOP in his state systematically pushed for harsh new voter ID laws in order to suppress the vote — specifically that of African Americans and young people. This Voter ID law is an overt maneuver for the GOP to block the votes of those they feel would support President Obama. And it should come as no surprise that a majority of these folks are the poor, the elderly, people of color, the disabled and young folks. In other words, they represent a massive voting block of the Democratic Party and came out in unprecedented numbers for the 2008 election. We are taking this country back to the days of Jim Crow or better yet exposing the fact that we never left. It is vitally important that Clergy leaders push for Justice and to empower those who do not have state issued ID’s to get them before the elections in November. We cannot remain silent with this massive injustice, not on our watch.