Something sinister is happening in this country, mostly unbeknownst to the vast majority of Americans. TPM has compiled stories and will continue to provide ongoing coverage about voter suppression and voter fraud. Many of these articles reveal voter suppression efforts disguised as those to prevent voter fraud. Voter fraud is pretty much a ginned-up controversy as there are few documented cases of it in the U.S., and yet legislation that resembles voter suppression is being considered in states across the country.

Rolling Stone Magazine recently ran an article explaining this well-organized strategy to prevent voter fraud. Some of the laws being proposed and implemented affecting a citizen’s right to vote are: imposing new restrictions on voter registration drives, decreasing the number of days for early voting, requiring government-issued photo IDs, and preventing ex-felons, including non-violent offenders, from voting even after they have paid their dues and served their time.

Women and minorities fought for years to gain the right to participate in the voting franchise. They and like-minded white men worked tirelessly to eliminate property ownership and literacy requirements, poll taxes, and other barriers to voting, as well as ending the hateful Jim Crow laws—which the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 finally abolished. Because of their tireless and oftentimes violent struggle, the following are questions that legislators intent on passing these types of laws need to answer:

1.) Shouldn’t we expand the right and make it easier to vote as opposed to erecting barriers to it?
2.) Shouldn’t we encourage more citizens to participate in the electoral process?
3.) Isn’t the right to vote a fundamental component of democracy?
4.) Shouldn’t prisoners who’ve served their sentences and paid their dues be given the right to vote again?
5.) This one is specifically for Governor Rick Perry of Texas: You won’t accept a college student ID as a valid voting document, but a gun or concealed weapons license is sufficient?

Yes, only eligible citizens should be allowed to vote, but the claim of rampant voter fraud in the U.S. is blatantly false, so the quesiton becomes: what is the real objective of these restrictions and regulations? Onerous rules that make it difficult for the elderly, the poor, and the young to exercise their right to vote undermine our democracy. American citizens in the 1800s and the early to mid 1900s went to prison, endured beatings, were raped, and even murdered trying to gain the right to vote.* Today, too many Americans fail to exercise their right to vote, don’t appreciate it, or take it for granted, and this is a travesty because millions of people around the globe would love to be able to cast a vote, making their voice heard.

Americans should all be paying attention to this issue, especially knowing the obstacles our ancestors overcame to gain enfranchisement. Sadly, the mainstream media is not covering these attempts to restrict voting rights, but it is too important to ignore.

* This link details the history of voting rights in the United States, beginning in 1776 when Abigail Adams asked the Continental Congress to support women's rights up until the present day. It's worth reading.