AMY GOODMAN: The Brennan Center has also found registration patterns vary from state to state. But more than 26 percent fewer new voters registered in Florida this year than in 2006, along with 21 percent fewer in Maryland, almost 17 percent fewer in Tennessee. What does this mean?
WENDY WEISER: Yeah, we've been seeing a troubling pattern this year of dropping registration rates. They are much lower than they've been in many states from prior midterm elections. And one of the reasons for this--and this has raised some concern--is that there are far fewer efforts to register voters. We don't see large-scale voter registration drives out there the way there have been in past election cycles.
AMY GOODMAN: Like the disbanding of ACORN.
WENDY WEISER: Like the disbanding of ACORN, but this is--it's not only ACORN that's been affected by this attack on voter registration groups. Many groups that used to register voters aren't out there registering voters now.
AMY GOODMAN: Why?
WENDY WEISER: I think there was some kind of climate of fear created by those attacks on registration groups that have made it much more difficult for people to do that. This was a civic good that people were doing out of civic virtue, and they were worried about being attacked for engaging in these kinds of activities. In some cases, it's been laws that were passed that make it very difficult.
AMY GOODMAN: So this, the right's attack on ACORN and the congressional attack on ACORN, which was unprecedented, the disbanding of ACORN, not only affected this largest voter registration organization in the country, but had ripple effects everywhere.
WENDY WEISER: That is what we think has happened, yes.
This is the war we are fighting. Make no mistake. It is a war. It is a war for the right to vote. Whatever happens today, that war will continue. And we need to step it up.
