On November 23, I wrote a piece titled "DHS Incompetence or Voter Suppression" which included this passage, "Voter suppression has been one of the hallmarks of the Republican Party but has reached its zenith under the Bush/Cheney administration.  Its implementation has taken many forms including: phone jamming,voter ID laws, which are essentially poll taxes, voter caging, and other forms of voter intimidation and dirty tricks."

There's an interesting post by Digby at Campaign for America's Future, "Cagey Conservatives," in which she includes the Indiana Voter ID law coming up before the Supreme Court in 2008, which poses the question of a photo ID as a requirement to vote; the chair of the Kansas GOP bragging about voter caging; Ohio, under its former Republican governor and secretary of state, making the abominable practice of caging part of an election law, and more.

All these and other tactics are and have been used for years by Republicans to execute their ongoing voter suppression strategies.  As cover, Republicans claim they are trying to prevent massive voter fraud.  It doesn't exist.  However, Republicans tell that lie so often, many believe it.

Meanwhile, voting fraud has not been committed by voters but by Republican manipulation of touch screen voting machines, called DREs or Direct Response Electronic, without paper trails (although those with paper trails are flawed and can be manipulated also), manufactured and sold by mainly Republican owned companies to gullible or complicit state and county officials under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). 

HAVA was passed by a Republican controlled Congress to assist Republican corporate cronies in reaping billions of dollars selling dangerously flawed, easily hacked, almost undetectable vote changing computer hardware and software, to ensure one party Republican control of Congress and the presidency.

Digby's piece also contains a link to Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) and his 2005 article about a Voting Rights Amendment to the Constitution, which does not contain the most fundamental right of citizenship, the right to vote.

In 2005, I read a book titled, Rebuilding the Democratic Party From the Grassroots.  It's only about 100 pages and chock full of information and how-to's.  A section called "Bottom Up Election Reform," has a chapter, "Fix the Foundation."  It includes this paragraph:

"During the 2000 election debacle, the Supreme Court, apparently playing a political rather than its judicial role, decided to stop the Florida recount and selected George W. Bush as president.  The Supreme Court, on many occasions, has indicated that the Constitution has no specific clause that grants individuals the right to vote.  (Underline added)

The authors went on to say that, "Two constitutional issues should be a priority of the Democratic Party: 1) confirming the right to vote  2) repealing the Electoral College

"Until constitutional amendments are passed on these issues, Democratic senators should use these two issues as a litmus test for judicial nominees to the federal courts and the Supreme Court.  If nominees do not believe that the right to vote should be specifically stated in the Constitution and don't believe that the Electoral College should be abolished, they should not receive any Democratic senator's confirmation vote." 

This book is as relevant today as it was when it was published in 2005; in fact, even more so with the 2008 election almost here.  It's a must read for progressive Democrats.