It's easy to take for granted how markedly different Vermont's attitude toward voting and elections is, compared to the rest of the nation's.
It's easy to register to vote in Vermont, and registration drives at sites from schools to nursing homes happen regularly. Early voting takes place six weeks before an election, and voters can cast a ballot ahead of Election Day for any reason they offer.
No photo ID is required at polling places (a good thing, as Vermont is one of the few states that issues driver licenses without photos). Granted, most towns are small enough that the Town Clerk knows who you are without an ID, but every voter's identity is still checked against the names and addresses on the voting rolls.
In short, the default position of the state of Vermont is to make it easy as possible to vote and to run the elections accordingly. Democrats and Republicans benefit equally.
That's why participation in elections here is higher than most places.
* * *
Compare this attitude to what we are seeing elsewhere in the nation. The voter ID laws so vigorously backed by Republicans are ostensibly about preventing voting fraud, an act so rare in most jurisdictions that it's nearly non-existent.
No, these laws are really about making it more difficult to register to vote.
They are about frightening off groups that want to hold voter registration drives.
They are about requiring voters to have photo ID cards, then making it difficult to obtain them.
They're about curtailing early voting periods, then making it difficult to get an absentee ballot.
In short, these laws illustrate the exact opposite of Vermont's approach to voting.
Republican-controlled state legislatures are pushing restrictive new voting rules for one simple reason. Put up as many bureaucratic hurdles as possible, and you might be able to discourage or block enough people from voting - mostly the poor, the young, the elderly, or the blacks and Hispanics who usually vote for Democrats - to ensure that Republicans get elected.
According to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, 1 in 10 eligible voters lacks the necessary ID to vote. That figure includes 1 in 4 African Americans, and about 1 in 5 senior citizens.
How would this affect an election?
The Brennan Center estimates that more than 5 million people will have a significantly harder time casting a vote in the 2012 election, and that the states which have already cut back on voting rights account for 171 electoral votes in this year's election.
That's 63 percent of the 270 electoral votes needed for victory.
* * *
The Brennan Center recently looked at 10 states that recently passed restrictive voter ID laws: Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin.
Five of the states have passed laws that are currently in effect (Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee). The other five are either awaiting federal approval (Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas), on appeal after being found unconstitutional under state law (Wisconsin), or not scheduled to go into effect until after 2012 (Alabama).
The Brennan Center found that about a half-million eligible voters will find it nearly impossible to obtain the necessary ID because they live in households without access to transportation and live more than 10 miles away from an ID-issuing office.
Because many of these voters might not have driver's licenses - and nearly all live in rural areas with limited public transportation - it could be significantly harder for them to get an ID and cast a ballot.
Even if you have a way to get to the office that issues IDs, there's no guarantee it will be be open during regular business hours.
Not surprisingly, the Brennan Center found that the areas with the highest concentration of people of color and people living in poverty had the least access to an ID-issuing office.
Then there is the other problem: tracking down the birth certificates, marriage licenses, divorce decrees, and other documentation that some states now require to get a voter ID. Even though voter IDs are free, the time and expense of coming up with these documents is beyond the reach, financially and logistically, of many potential voters.
That's why these voter ID laws are being challenged in courts around the nation. Practically speaking, they become barriers that discourage voter participation. They are laws that are simply unworthy of a democracy.
For democracy to work, voting must be a universal right not subject to the partisan whims of whoever is in power.
When those in power decide to curtail that right, no matter what the excuse, our nation suffers.