With Voting Rights Groups Reeling, New Registrations Decline

by Jesse Zwick from The Washington Independent. 

After more than a decade of success expanding voter rolls, voting rights advocates are noting a disturbing trend in the run-up to the 2010 elections. Dramatically fewer groups are engaged in registering voters during the current election cycle than in previous midterm elections, and fewer voters, especially in poorer areas that are traditionally underrepresented and therefore the usual target of voter registration drives, are registering to vote as a result.

The author argues that this is because of right-wing efforts to curtail independent registration campaigns and to put up many obstacles in the way of 3rd parties to run in elections. He supports his argument only with the observations of people involved, or have been involved, in independent registration voter registration campaigns. 

I'll bet that people who visit my blog can think of other reasons why fewer people are interested in voting. Like, for example, what difference does voting make? In the 2008 elections people registered and voted in relatively large numbers believing in candidates who promised change--and they received more of the same. The economy for working people is still a disaster, the wars continue, the infrastructure in the US continues to crumble, public services are being slashed, more environmental disasters, more bankster frauds, etc.

The ruling capitalist class has always managed its elections by limiting registration and 3rd parties whenever it was deemed necessary to maintain their rule. This is important to them in order to maintain the fiction or the illusion of a representative democracy. It's just that some years the political operatives of the ruling class are more active than others, more active whenever any threats appear to challenge their management of elections. So, while the current repression that he cites in his essay may be a factor in lower voting registrations, it is probably not a very significant factor. The most important factor, I believe, is diminished interest in voting because increasing people are becoming aware that it really makes no difference.