A Republican measure to limit voting has passed in North Carolina. The new measure will require voter IDs, shorten early voting by a week, ends same day registration, make any changes to one’s address at least 25 days before the election and eliminates straight party voting. The legislation will make it harder to trace the money behind campaigns.

Voting statistics in North Carolina show Democrats are more likely to vote early and vote straight ticket, two of the practices targeted by the bill. A state study also estimated more than 300,000 registered voters lack driver’s licenses or other forms of state-issued ID, most of them elderly or low-income minorities.

In practical terms, voter suppression makes sense from a Republican viewpoint. For decades the Republican Party has thrived on a hateful rhetoric essentially waging war against  the poor, women, gays, people of color and immigrants. Consisting now of a shrinking demographic of angry white men and a thinning crowd of minority groups who want to please them, the Republican Party has little choice now but to declare war on democracy itself.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/25/north-carolina-voter-id-bill_n_3656084.html