This week in the War on Voting: Obama and House Democrats fight voter suppression

That's Dorothy Cooper, who you've met before. She's 96 years old and almost wasn't going to be able to vote this year because stringent new voter identification laws passed in her state, Tennessee, intended to, well, keep people from her like voting. Because her story made news, she got some attention and help from a powerful source.

Obama for America volunteers helped secure Mrs. Cooper's identification and is featuring her in GottaVote.org, a new tool developed by the Obama campaign designed to help residents in every state navigate the increasingly complicated voter registration process. In an email announcing the new site, the campaign writes:

GottaVote.org is a one-stop shop for getting the facts on voting, reminders for key dates and deadlines, and alerts on the status of voting rights in your state. It's available in both English and Spanish (www.gottavote.org/es) because different languages shouldn't keep Americans from voting.

The portal provides voters detailed state-by-state information on how and when to register. By providing a phone number and email address, you can get reminders of when to register. Additionally, it gives volunteer attorneys a convenient way to become "victory counsels" to help voter protection efforts across the country. It also has a Tumblr where voters can ask process questions.

It took Mrs. Cooper five pieces of documentation, and the assistance of willing volunteers, but she secured her vote for November. There could be as many as five million Dorothy Coopers in America, citizens who will be denied the vote in the relentless Republican campaign to cheat another election.

Congressional Democrats have gotten in on the action, too. This week they introduced the Voter Empowerment Act, comprehensive legislation that would extend voting rights for all Americans. It would:

modernize our voter registration system, ensure equal access to the ballot box for all Americans and prohibit voter caging and other deceptive practices that keep people from exercising their constitutional right to vote. The bill will protect voters from restrictive voting measures that have been enacted in states across the country over the last year. These measures make it harder for millions of eligible voters to register or vote, and disproportionally affect our service members, the disabled, minorities, young people, seniors, and low-income Americans.

There are few more compelling reasons to work to get Nancy Pelosi back in the speaker's chair and to keep the Senate and White House next year than seeing this law enacted.

For more of the week's news, make the jump below the fold.