Editor’s Note: Readers can replay the video chat below.
From the recently upheld voter ID law in Pennsylvania to purges of voter rolls in New Mexico to state challenges to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the last few years have seen a proliferation of state laws that threaten to disenfranchise millions of voters. Passed under the guise of combating the virtually nonexistent problem of voter fraud, the laws target poor people, people of color, the elderly and students, and threaten to roll back the clock on voting rights in ways not seen since before the civil rights era. Activists and voting rights advocates are fighting back, but what will the landscape look like this November and going forward? What is the future of the Voting Rights Act? And what effect would proposed reforms, such as a national id card, have on guaranteeing the right to vote for historically disenfranchised communities?
On Thursday, August 23rd at 12 PM EST readers are invited to join us for The Nation.com’s first ever live video chat. Organized in partnership with Colorlines.com as part of our Voting Rights Watch 2012 series, the chat will feature Nation reporters Brentin Mock, Aura Bogado and Ari Berman. All three have reported extensively on voting rights, including on the voter suppression group True the Vote, discrepancies in the numbers of ID-less residents cited by the state of Pennsylvania and efforts to end early voting in Ohio. After a discussion amongst our panelists, we’ll invite you—our readers—to submit your best questions and comments.
Readers are encouraged to RSVP and sign up for a reminder email in the chat box below. While anyone can watch the chat, you will need to be signed into Spreecast, Twitter or Facebook to submit questions. We hope to see you on Thursday, August 23rd for a lively discussion!
