Over the past few years, dozens of states have passed restrictive voter ID and other voter suppression laws that could disenfranchise an estimated 21 million eligible voters, mostly people of color, young voters and senior citizens. The United Steelworkers (USW) just posted three videos of people—including a former congressman—who have recently been denied the right to vote because of new state laws.

Several hundred young people from California, Florida, Arizona and Texas took part in the Voto Latino Power Summit in Los Angeles this past weekend, joining local community leaders in a two-day event to empower young Latinos to create positive change in their communities.

The past few weeks have not been kind to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch.

Donna Gratehouse, who blogs at Democratic Diva and elsewhere on all things Arizona, sends us this.

The past few weeks have not been kind to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). and it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of people. Rising GOP superstar and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is in furious denial and damage control mode over multiple reports of the striking resemblance of bills he is pushing in his state to ALEC model legislation. A nationwide petition effort by Color of Change to persuade major corporations to drop their support of ALEC appears to be wildly successful, with companies such as Coke, Pepsi, Kraft Foods and others saying adios to the organization.

Color of Change chose ALEC's attacks on the voting rights of minorities as a main issue for its campaign because it is one of the most insidious ways that ALEC achieves its harmful goals. And my state, Arizona, has been at the forefront of ALEC's voter suppression agenda.

Last Saturday, more than 30 dedicated Asian Pacific American (APA) activists from a variety of local APA organizations joined the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance’s D.C. Chapter (APALA-DC) in Annandale, Va., to launch the national APALA “Every Vote Counts” campaign. Members of APALA-DC, Asian American Action Group, Korean Americans for Obama, KAYA (formerly Filipino Americans for Obama), Vietnamese Americans for Obama, Voice of Vietnamese Americans and others arrived at the Northern Virginia Central Labor Council bright and early to learn about the importance of civic engagement within the APA community and to train in the basics of voter registration.

Guess who's behind Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law that's been spotlighted since the Feb. 26 fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., by a neighborhood watch volunteer?

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), at the behest of the National Rifle Association. ALEC is the corporate-funded boiler room churning out model legislation attacking collective bargaining rights, voting rights and more that's being adopted by states with Republican-led legislatures.

Ryan J. Reilly at Talking Points Memo has the story.

Pennsylvania has become the latest state to pass a voter ID law in the Republican-led nationwide effort to deny the vote to millions. H.B. 934, which Gov. Tom Corbett signed into law last Wednesday, will effectively disenfranchise 691,000 Pennsylvanians who do not currently have a driver’s license, according to a 2006 Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) estimate. African Americans, seniors, people with disabilities, the working poor and students are twice as likely as others to lack ID. Voter ID bills introduced across the country would disenfranchise more than 21 million eligible voters.

What has caused the sudden obsession over “voter fraud” that has seized Corbett and other Republican politicians all across the country?

The better question is not “what” but “who.” And for whom.

Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court gave business corporations and other groups the green light for unlimited independent campaign spending. That decision in the Citizens United case, says the AFL-CIO Executive Council, has “undermined democracy.”

This past week, I had the privilege of joining with thousands of people from Alabama and around the country who walked from Selma to Montgomery to commemorate the historic march 47 years ago that forced Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act and that changed our country forever. Hundreds of leaders from the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), the immigrant rights coalition convened by the Center for Community Change (CCC), came to Alabama from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Nevada, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, Kansas and Colorado.  We joined with thousands of members and leaders from civil rights organizations, immigrant rights organizations and AFL-CIO unions and other unions in a powerful, diverse show of strength and unity that transformed the hearts and minds of everyone who was a part of it. I believe that this week’s events will go down in history as a turning point in our efforts to build a broad-based coalition to advance progressive change. 

A county judge in Wisconsin ruled today that the law backed by Gov. Scott Walker requiring voters to show photo ID is unconstitutional.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess blocked the law, saying it would unconstitutionally disenfranchise citizens who do not have photo IDs. Addressing claims that the photo ID law would prevent voter fraud, Niess wrote, "fraud is no more poisonous to our democracy than voter suppression."