'Souls to the polls': Black churches push back against voter suppression

Congressional Black Caucus,
Faith Leaders Summit on Voting Rights

As the right wing increases its efforts to turn back time and force us back into the past with concerted drives to restrict voter registration and disenfranchise those of us who are already registered, new efforts are being mounted to fight back.

The same way that black church leaders played a key role in voter registration during the civil rights movement of the sixties, once again they will step up to the pulpit, move their congregations to get out the vote and join efforts to push back against repressive restrictions.

Wednesday, May 30th, a Faith Leaders Summit was held in Washington D.C. by the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) in conjunction with the Conference of National Black Churches (CNBC).

Preachers Prepare to Get Souls to the Polls

The event's first panel summarized various laws that have passed around the nation from 2010 to 2012, including measures that do the following:

* Require people to present a birth certificate, or other proof of U.S. citizenship, in order to register to vote

* Require non-expired, state-issued photo identification in order to register and/or vote

* Eliminate same-day voter registration

* Levy stringent guidelines and penalties on third-party voter-registration drives

* Reduce or eliminate early voting periods (including the Sunday before elections, which counted for 32 percent of the African-American voter turnout in Florida in 2008)

* Bar people with criminal convictions from restoring their voting rights after they've paid their debts to society

(Continue reading below the fold)