Research Backs Up Voter Suppression Claims, But Media Stay In False-Balance Mode
Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 01:12AM The media is applying false balance to its coverage of Republican-sponsored laws that make voting more difficult. But that approach is undermined by the growing body of evidence from nonpartisan researchers showing that disenfranchisement due to new voter ID laws and restrictions on early voting is a real and growing problem.
NY Times, WSJ Employ False Balance In Coverage Of Voter Suppression
NY Times: Republicans Support Voter ID Laws And Cutbacks On Early Voting, But Democrats "Worry About What They Call Voter Suppression." From a September 9 New York Times article:
In the 2000 presidential election, a deadlock over ballot design and tallying in parts of Florida led the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, to stop a recount of ballots, which led to George W. Bush defeating Al Gore. Since then, both parties have focused on voting procedures.
The Obama campaign, for example, brought suit in Ohio over its reduction of early voting weekends used more by blacks than other groups.
Republicans have expressed concern over what they call voter integrity. They say they fear that registration drives by liberal and community groups have bloated voter rolls with the dead and the undocumented and have created loose monitoring of who votes and low public confidence in the system. They have instituted voter identification rules, cut back on early voting and sought to purge voter lists by comparing them with others, including those of the Department of Homeland Security.