Over the past several months, MSNBC has been on a tirade criticizing attempts by mostly Republican state legislatures to ensure voting integrity by requiring a photo ID in order to vote.
As NewsBusters has documented, one of the leaders of the anti-ID movement is none other than the host of the 6 p.m. Eastern program Politics Nation, the Rev. Al Sharpton, who on numerous occasions has suggested that such laws are thinly-veiled, racially animated attempts to depress minorities of their right to vote. [See video below break.]
Given that voter ID laws are viewed as discriminatory by MSNBC, one would expect outrage over video showing a poll worker asking President Obama to show his ID when he participated in early voting Wednesday in Chicago, Illinois. Of course, no such outrage has occurred and MSNBC continues to ignore the fact that numerous courts have ruled photo ID laws are not discriminatory.
Oddly enough, in Illinois, no one has to produce a photo ID to vote on election day itself, but early voting is a different story. "During Early Voting, voters must provide a current and valid government-issued PHOTO ID, such as a current Illinois driver's license, current state identification card issued by the Illinois Secretary of State or a current passport. This is an Early Voting requirement under Illinois law," notes the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.
Of course, early voting is incredibly important for minorities, who often cannot arrange to come to the polls on election day itself, MSNBC has been telling us for months.
What of the minority voters in Democratic Illinois who cannot get to the polls on November 6 and don't have photo ID for early voting? So far, no one at MSNBC, including Sharpton, has raised the issue afresh these concerns in light of the news hook of the president's early voting.
Apparently MSNBC only considers the issue of photo ID newsworthy when it involves Republicans, not states controlled by Democrats which will firmly be in the Obama column on November 6 like Rhode Island and Illinois.
