As You Know, Barb,

The tag/label I use for attempts at voter suppression and tales of voter "fraud" (there are more insect parts in your average hot dog than cases of actual voter "fraud," and most of it seems to be committed by Republicans.  Just saying.  Want to finish that hot dog?  There's a ball game this weekend) is, as I've mentioned the punch line to what may be a Dick Gregory sketch [Mr. Gregory was just slightly before my time and may not have been considered child-friendly] , which may refer to literacy tests, in which the prospective voter is handed a sheet in Chinese.  The Election Commissioner wants to bring this sort of stupid back.

Critics say the commission is a pretext for Republican efforts to make it harder to register and to vote, and that it will reach a predetermined conclusion, that tough new rules are needed to prevent fraud,” the Times noted. “Studies have repeatedly shown that illegal voting is very rare, and that voter impersonation — perhaps the main danger suggested by advocates of tighter election rules — is next to nonexistent.”

Those studies, however, don’t hold sway with Gardner, who told the paper that additional voting restrictions could be a boon to turnout.

(AlterNet, from Raw Story by David Edwards)

Yeah, really.