Andrea Mitchell's Dishonest 'Lean Forward' Ad Blames Both Sides For Voter Disenfranchisement

I don't know how many regular MSNBC viewers we have here at C&L, but this ad by Andrea Mitchell has been sticking in my craw since I first saw it air not long ago. As part of their "lean forward" series of ads featuring their various hosts, Andrea
By Heather — March 30, 2012

I don't know how many regular MSNBC viewers we have here at C&L, but this ad by Andrea Mitchell has been sticking in my craw since I first saw it air not long ago. As part of their "lean forward" series of ads featuring their various hosts, Andrea Mitchell decided to weigh in on the issue of voter disenfranchisement. The trouble here is she refuses to identify just who is doing the disenfranchising.

Somehow the word Republican never manages to leave her lips. Sorry Mrs. Greenspan, but there is one party out there doing their best to make sure people can't vote at unprecedented levels because they know it's bad for them if too many people vote.

Here's more from AlterNet on the topic -- The Cancer of Voter Suppression: The GOP's Silent Coup.

Their article pointed to a new report issued by the Brennan Center for Justice, entitled, Voting Law Changes in 2012.

Here is their executive summary of the report:

Over the past century, our nation expanded the franchise and knocked down myriad barriers to full electoral participation. In 2011, however, that momentum abruptly shifted.

State governments across the country enacted an array of new laws making it harder to register or to vote. Some states require voters to show government-issued photo identification, often of a type that as many as one in ten voters do not have. Other states have cut back on early voting, a hugely popular innovation used by millions of Americans. Two states reversed earlier reforms and once again disenfranchised millions who have past criminal convictions but who are now taxpaying members of the community. Still others made it much more difficult for citizens to register to vote, a prerequisite for voting.

These new restrictions fall most heavily on young, minority, and low-income voters, as well as on voters with disabilities. This wave of changes may sharply tilt the political terrain for the 2012 election. Based on the Brennan Center’s analysis of the 19 laws and two executive actions that passed in 14 states, it is clear that:

  • These new laws could make it significantly harder for more than five million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012.
  • The states that have already cut back on voting rights will provide 171 electoral votes in 2012 – 63 percent of the 270 needed to win the presidency.
  • Of the 12 likely battleground states, as assessed by an August Los Angeles Times analysis of Gallup polling, five have already cut back on voting rights (and may pass additional restrictive legislation), and two more are currently considering new restrictions.

States have changed their laws so rapidly that no single analysis has assessed the overall impact of such moves. Although it is too early to quantify how the changes will impact voter turnout, they will be a hindrance to many voters at a time when the United States continues to turn out less than two thirds of its eligible citizens in presidential elections and less than half in midterm elections.

This study is the first comprehensive roundup of all state legislative action thus far in 2011 on voting rights, focusing on new laws as well as state legislation that has not yet passed or that failed. This snapshot may soon be incomplete: the second halves of some state legislative sessions have begun.

And here is a list of articles they linked related to the study:

But Andrea Mitchell wants the viewers at MSNBC to believe that Democrats are the problem with voter suppression and disenfranchisement as well.

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