The Charleston Gazette:  Editorial

Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans roughly 2-to-1 in West Virginia. Therefore, it's to the GOP's advantage to hinder easy voting by everyone. Making it harder to vote boosts Republican chances.

Evidently that's the unspoken motive behind Tuesday's overwhelming decision by the Kanawha County Republican Executive Committee to prevent creation of three new early voting sites at St. Albans, Belle and Elkview.

Currently, early voting occurs only at the courthouse annex in midtown Charleston. It's a popular service drawing throngs of eager citizens before each election. A new state law allows the convenience to be offered at handy "satellite" spots near people's homes -- but it requires approval by various officials and both political parties. Kanawha County leaders strongly backed the three new early voting precincts, but the GOP group killed them.

Shame on the committee. Why should a few partisans, chosen by their party, have power to block easy voting by everyone, including members of the opposite party?

To overcome this setback, maybe Kanawha could provide bus passes to outlying folks, enabling them to come to the courthouse for early voting. Or maybe the Legislature could revise the law so that party committees no longer can obstruct the right to vote.

Nationally, the Democratic margin is slimmer. Only 29 states require voters to register by party, and Democrats hold an edge in those states, 43 percent to 33 percent. A new Rasmussen poll released Sunday said just 35.5 percent of Americans now consider themselves to be Democrats -- compared to 34 percent who call themselves Republican and 30.6 percent who say they're independent.

At the national level, the GOP constantly strives to obstruct voting by low-income and minority Americans, who usually lean Democratic. That's the source of the exaggerated outcry over ACORN, which registers slum-dwellers to vote. A new study by the Congressional Research Service found that ACORN didn't commit voter fraud or misuse federal funds -- but that hasn't curbed raging right-wing broadcasters.

"The Republican War on Voting" was the title of an American Prospect article about many GOP lawsuits and political actions designed to curtail voting by the poor. Most of the efforts involve claims of vote fraud.

But in Kanawha County, the GOP simply didn't want to make it easy for outlying folks to enjoy early voting.