Nervously, I set up the HeadCount booth, and wait for the volunteers to show up. It’s hot out, and I wish I remembered to bring sunscreen. It’s early, but there’s already a band onstage. I can’t believe someone put me in charge of all this! But I read the registration info a bunch of times and I am sure I know the rules. I hope I can convince these people to register to vote today. I am kinda freakin’ out. But then I take a deep breath, close my eyes and let the music wash over me for a minute. OK, I’m ready to go. I have to get this right, because I feel that not enough of “us” are making our voices heard at the voting booth.

That was the scene at the first music festival I worked for HeadCount. I had signed up to volunteer back in 2004 because I didn’t like what was happening in the country, and I had to do something! I loved going to shows, and thought it would be cool to register a few voters while I was there. No big deal. I somehow ended up as a team leader, still wondering how a bunch of laid-back Heads could make all of this happen. But we did.

Many shows and thousands of registrations later, I went away to law school and moved on to what I thought were bigger and better things. I moved to a much smaller city and was getting used to my life as a legal aid lawyer when all hell broke loose in Wisconsin’s political scene. I felt like Wisconsin, the home of the progressive movement, was moving in the wrong direction. The new Voter ID bill was going to make it unnecessarily hard to vote. The state government de-funded legal aid for the poor. They were trying to sneak bills through with no debate or public input. I had to do something! I tweeted, I protested, I slept outside the state capital. (Because of all the festivals I have been to, I can set up a tent literally anywhere now.)

Eventually, I found some like-minded local people who had formed “Middle Wisconsin.” They wanted to get more people to speak up and make their voices heard. I was asked to be on their steering committee because they wanted someone with “community organizing experience.”

The way I got that experience:

Set 1:

Volunteer >Become Team Leader>

Figure out voter registration>

Alpine Valley>Tweezer Reprise>

Find more volunteers>broken table>hugs

Set 2:

Take over as WI team leader>Freakout>

Alpine DMB>Windstorm>Broken Tent>SCI x2>

Summercamp>Register voters with Al>sunburn>

10KLF>Golfcart ride with Vince Herman>Who took my pen?

Wakarusa>Michael Franti Acoustic set>Tears>Pride

Encore: Jamcruise

Anyway, the Middle Wisconsin steering committee gets together every week or two at my friend Mandy’s dining room table. We are just a bunch of regular people, trying to make a difference. While we sit around the table drinking home-brewed beer, we plan our next event. We try to combine fun stuff with a dose of political reality. (Sound familiar?) We keep in touch with our members by using Facebook, a blog and a monthly newsletter.

On Sunday, we staged a Concert for Voters here in Wausau. 9 different bands played and local vendors sold food (and tie dye shirts) from stands around our city square. Former U.S. Rep. Dave Obey talked about how important activism is. Current members of the state legislature spoke about the importance of voting and local groups like ours. A lot of people showed up, danced and had a great time. We even had hoopers on the lawn! Our community is now more informed, and hopefully energized to make a difference about the direction our state is taking. I was lucky to be a part of the planning something like this. And this time, I wasn’t nervous at all. If I learned anything from working with HeadCount, it’s that it all gets done somehow.

Where was I during this festival of democracy? Sitting at the Middle Wisconsin voter info booth, getting sunburned, listening to the music, and helping people learn about the new Voter ID law. We registered 39 people and I am proud of that. As proud as I was when I started registering voters in 2004. But this time it’s different. I know why someone put me in charge of all this, and I think back to my time at the HeadCount booth, and smile.

What about my idea of moving on to “bigger and better things?” There’s nothing better or more important than knowing you are making a difference. Whether I’m an activist in the courtroom or at the voter registration booth, it’s all a big deal, and it all matters. I am grateful to HeadCount for teaching me that, and grateful to the people of Middle Wisconsin for reminding me that it is still true today.

Rhode Island, a state dominated by liberal voters and a Democratic legislature, has committed an epic party foul by passing a voter ID bill. In most of the country, voter ID has been a strictly partisan issue, supported by Republicans and opposed by Democrats. But in defending his decision to sign the bill, Independent Governor (and former Republican Senator) Lincoln Chafee said, “I’m all for party loyalty, but God gave me a brain and I use it.” We could argue the point, but what good would that do? Rather, we should chalk this loss up to a minor fumble by Democrat activist groups, and understand that even states are not immune from Napoleon complexes. It happens.

So, what’s the lesson here? First, voter ID legislation has moved beyond a pissing match between Republicans and Democrats. Second, fear of voter fraud is gaining momentum. Chafee even said “I spoke with representatives of our state's minority communities, and I found their concerns about voter fraud and their support for this bill particularly compelling.”

He’s taking some heat for that, with there being only the smallest possible evidence of voter fraud in any state. But in Rhode Island, I guess small is relative.

Last Friday night, New York stepped up and passed the same-sex marriage bill, which nearly led my Facebook account to crash. One Facebooker appropriately commented, “This is the best thing to happen to weddings since Earth, Wind & Fire.”

While this was a historic moment for New York, it is incumbent upon us to take a few steps back and realize that safeguarding an individual’s right to vote is a paramount policy issue, which is currently being attacked in various states nationwide via the passage of various voter ID bills. Under the guise of combating mythical, voter fraud, these voter ID bills impose stringent requirements to keep minorities, the elderly, and students from the poll booths.

However, states such as North Carolina keep us hopeful that voter ID legislation will be struck down, or at the very least challenged. Last Thursday, North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue (D) vetoed a strict voter ID bill; overturning his veto would require the votes of several House Democrats, which seems highly unlikely. Kudos to North Carolina.

Although a similar bill was unfortunately passed in Maine last week, political groups have since gathered to rally, seeking to collect 52,777 signatures from constituents by August 8 in order to repeal the law using a vehicle called the citizen’s veto. It is this sort of activism that paves the way for great things down the road, such as same-sex marriage. Start small. Think big.

Currently, we are waiting with baited breath to see what happens in Rhode Island, which could potentially be the first Democratic state to pass such legislation. A decision is expected by the end of the week. For a comprehensive update on the status of various Voter ID laws check out the Fair Election Legal Network's update , click here.

“I’m out for presidents to represent me.” It’s a good thing Nas doesn’t live in Wisconsin, because now that Governor Scott Walker has signed a voter ID bill, securing said objective will become a whole lot tougher to attain. “Say what?” Under the guise of deterring voter fraud, Wisconsin will be the eleventh state to enact a bill requiring state-issued ID to vote. Ironically, the law will require the famously cash-strapped state to issue free ID's, costing tax payers millions of dollars. On the surface, it seems logical – the magic answer to combating voter fraud is easily accomplished by issuing free voter ID cards. But wait . . . As Mike Tate, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said:

"Without any real need for this legislation, Republicans knew that it would most impact the elderly, students, shut-ins, African-Americans, Latinos and other groups that tend to vote Democratic,' he said.

"They have limited rights rather than expanding them, spent taxpayer dollars rather than saving them, grown government rather than shrinking it, and shown their distrust for democracy, rather than any love of it."

Since this is my first post for HeadCount, I’ll give you a little background about me. I’m 32, single, live in New York City, am an associate at a law firm, am partial to cabs and have no idea when my driver’s license was issued (although I know it’s current). I can barely find the time to do laundry or clean my apartment. I’ll admit that I’m high maintenance. Even with a free state ID, the burden of taking time off of work, rifling through and assembling required documents, and waiting in line at a DMV would clearly suck up a significant amount of my time. And I’m not even part of the demographic these laws are intended to discourage. For me, obtaining a free state ID would be a pain the ass. For those who have been targeted by this law, it’s more of an outright obstruction to their right to vote.

In an era in which some combination of video screens, LED lights and lasers is standard fare at large concerts, there's still nothing quite as visually compelling as watching David ‘LEBO’ Le Batard paint at the side of the stage. Representing the self-proclaimed movement of “Postmodern Cartoon Expressionism,” an application of cartoon imagery combined with rich colors and unique linear composition, LEBO has been seen live painting with acts such as The Beastie Boys and Thievery Corporation, and has created official art work for the Langerado Festival and the Latin Grammy Awards.

Most recently, he took to the stage during the Disco Biscuits' performance at the Ultra Music Festival. His work that night is being auctioned to support The Philadelphia Young Playwrights, a charity founded by the late mother of the band's keyboard player, Aron Magner.

I caught up with LEBO to talk about everything from his creative process to the voting system in his home state of Florida. The conversation was as colorful as his distinctive work.

I recently saw you live paint for the Disco Biscuits at the Ultra Music Festival.  I was wondering how that collaboration came about.  I understand you have worked with them in the past on one of their album covers.

Yeah, yeah. I started out probably about 5 or 6 years ago through a mutual friend of ours for a benefit; I did a live piece for one of their shows in Fort Lauderdale. Then, shortly after that, I did a couple other things. I did something up at Camp Bisco with them, and the album cover for The Wind at Four to Fly. Over the years - basically, if they are in town or if I’m somewhere where they are performing, we usually just hook up and do something together.

How did you enjoy the Ultra performance? I was up front. It looked like you were having a lot of fun up on stage.

Yeah, for sure. At this point it's nice with the Disco Biscuits and with a couple other bands - Thievery Corporation and Spam Allstars and some other bands - I've done stuff with them for a while, and there’s a certain amount of looseness to it, and there’s just kind of a certain chemistry that’s just there inherently when you do something a few times with somebody creatively. So it kind of clears away any rough spots there might be otherwise, and it just allows for a real creative train of thought to be able to facilitate itself.

When you live paint, what’s your method? Do you have a plan before the performance, or do you just take the canvas and see what happens?

Over the years, I've tried to utilize a bunch of different approaches. The one thing I don’t try to do is to come with a really pre-set plan, because I've always felt that if you're going to do something live, it needs to really engage what’s going on live. It’s not about just showing up and doing what I would normally do in the studio, or something like that. So what’s seemed to work best over the last couple years is to have a rough blueprint of what it’s going to be, and to kind of have a general idea of it. But then also to let sort of the organic method take place and fuse that together. So then there’s a bit of structure and a bit of improvisation, and that tends to yield the best results. It's more fun doing it that way, and then the finished piece comes out more whole.

The live painting that you created on stage with the Disco Biscuits - I understand it is currently being auctioned to benefit the Philadelphia Young Playwrights (PYP). Can you tell me a bit about what this organization is and what it does, and how you got involved with it?

Yeah. That was actually founded by Aron’s mom, the keyboard player, and it's basically to encourage creativity in places up in Philly that normally wouldn’t get it. It brings in the schools, inner city schools and places that kids wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to exhibit that part of themselves, and it gives them a place to do that and gives them the means to do that, and to actually perform pieces and see them come to fruition. So this is basically what that project is, and it's something that I was glad to help out with, something that we've done together.

You can bid here in the auction online to benefit the Philadelphia Young Playwrights. The action ends on Tuesday May 17^th.

As a working artist, how do you feel about the need to defend art education in America?

In my experience I've never really relied on the government for anything and I don't believe in the government for anything. I think that anything they usually have their hands in kind of turns to shit. So even though it's unfortunate, I don’t think (a) it's a surprise and (b) I don't think they were doing that good of a job to begin with. I've never relied on anything from the government in my art career, and I didn’t go to public school. And even the school that I did go to, they were more private schools for working-class people, so they didn’t have arts programs.

So ideally, I think it would be great if we valued art and the resounding effect it can have on our intellect outside of the art world. It’s like learning how to play chess: you know, you may know how to play chess really well, but the advantage comes in that it helps all of your other modes of thinking. And I think art does that too. But to me, this country and the government, they stopped caring about people a long time ago, and art is just one example. We can go down the list - whether it's medicine or even our road systems, they just don’t do a good job. So while it’s disappointing, it's not surprising at all.

In the lead-up to the 2012 election. what issues are important for you, and what issues do you think the pubic should be aware of?

Well, I think we should have a third and fourth party, to begin with. I think the fact that we live in a two-party system is a joke. Is there nothing else you can think of? In this world, that’s not diversified anymore. And you have systems in like Italy and in other places where there can be too many parties, but at the same time, those parties - the way they work is by voting! So if you have 15 parties running, they have an election, and then the people vote for the party that they want to vote for, and then they have another election. And then it’s really, it’s really a voting system. And it’s flawed in its own ways, but it’s not as limited. Whereas here, people want to put it in black-and-white terms, and it's either you're Democrat or you're Republican. Well, I’m not either of those things; I've voted independent for as far back as I can remember. Because I never feel like either party speaks for me, and I think a lot of people feel that way. On the front end of it, I would love to see more diversity and more-informed voting. Rather than this kind of drive-through voting that we have in this country. People kind of want to encapsulate these kind of broad issues into sound bites, and that’s where it starts.

After the whole Bush debacle that happened in Florida, it needs to be revamped in a way that makes a lot of sense, but how that gets done I'm not sure. Because if you go to a method that really uses technology, then you can always get hackers that can mess with that system too. If you have, like, a ballot system like it’s been, we've seen the flaws with that. So I'm not really sure. My emphasis and what I focus on is really looking outside of the two party system, because that’s something that I just don’t think works anymore.

What role do you think art plays in affecting this change that you are talking about?

The obvious example in terms of art is the recent example of Shepard Fairey stuff with the President. But I think the cool thing about art, especially if you do public art - and I've done a lot of murals growing up and stuff like that - is that it really is one of the most democratic ways to deliver a message. So whether it's with voting or it's whatever you happen to believe in. We still have the right in this country to go and put an image on the side of a street, where everybody can see it and everybody can have an opinion about it. Nobody needs to pay for it to get something from it, and it engages. And then it’s open to whatever it’s going to be open to, but you can still deliver your message. So I think the role of artist is, is to take whatever it is they believe in, and put it out there so the public can see it.

Some of it should be in the gallery system and the museums, but I definitely think some of it should be available to people that aren’t interested in any of that stuff. Because to me, being an artist you should -- for my method, I'm not saying all artists, but in the way that I try to produce art, and that’s part of the reason I do live stuff too -- you should try to be egalitarian about it, you should try and reach as many people as possible. Because I wouldn’t just want to reach people on a street level either. I like to have my work sometimes in an intellectual forum, where I am able to discuss it and I'm able to validate it and show the thought behind it. As well as put it on the street and have nobody even knows who did it or maybe its signed or whatever but they don’t really know who I am.

So I think that art really plays an important role in communicating a message, and if that message happens to be about voter empowerment or diversity of parties or whatever it happens to be, art can definitely qualify.

Going back to the live painting for a bit - how different is it, painting in front of audience, from the studio experience? Is your form any different? Do you find yourself painting in a different style because you find yourself consciously aware of an audience?

For sure, I think the solitary studio experience was one that I’m way more comfortable with, because I've been doing that since I was like ten years old I guess. When I was a kid, I had a drafting table in my room, and I worked at it all the time. So that was my studio then, and to me it’s kind of like a sanctuary in a way. And because of it, for me it tends to be a more analytical experience, and it has the gut sort of feeling to it as well. The predominant feeling is more cerebral, and I'm doing a lot of research, I'm developing a lot of sketches. It's really more about craft and really honing whatever physical skills I can, and then layering message and meaning into that.

Whereas to me, the live music part is taking all of that experience and just kind of putting it on the back end, where you are still able to rely on it but you are really reacting more from a gut level. And to me that just draws out something different; I tend to work a lot faster.

I really try, by and large, the pieces that I'm done with that I'm doing live, I generally bring 'em back into the studio and kinda tighten them up so they look more refined. Whereas it might take me a week to finish a painting in my studio, when I do a live piece I'll work on it for an hour - maybe two hours at most - and then I'll bring it into my studio for maybe two or three hours and its done. A lot of times, I think the live pieces end up being more successful then studio pieces and vice versa. It’s a real nice symbiosis. It’s a way to sort of, its like being in bamboo rather than oak. Rather than doing something the same way all the time, I constantly try and challenge myself to do things differently and by doing that my craft becomes much more fluid.

Can you elaborate bit more on the message that you're trying to convey through your studio work these days, the works that you're taking your time on in the studio, and putting a lot of thought into them?

I think there’s an underlying message in what I do: it's a message of hopefulness. I really try to explore that in as many ways as I can. One main way that I do and that I'm doing now as well is really studying natural principles. So that can be studying botany, or organic science, or astronomy and really trying to extract the things that make us who we are by studying those different things and magnifying those things. The things that make us the same, basically, verses the things that make us different. Which is what I think I spend a lot of time doing. When I in my teens, it was all about, you know, "Well how am I different?" My way of thinking is like this, and these people's way is like that and so forth. So over the years I've kind of had a real strong penchant for philosophy, for the past 15 years. And I think the more I have come closer to that the more I have become interested in the things that make us the same, and particularly the positive things that make us the same, and those are the things I tend to really explore over and over again.

So what other musicians have you performed live painting with?

I have been doing it now pretty actively for about ten years. I'd say some of the highlights on my personal list would definitely be the Disco Biscuits, Thievery Corporation, Beastie Boys would be up there, Burning Spear, Willie Nelson, The Dead, Femi Kuti would definitely be up there, Arturo Sandoval - a real famous trumpet player that’s still alive that goes back, I mean Dizzy Gillespie got him out of Cuba in the 50s. Les Claypool. I've done stuff probably three different times on Jam Cruise, which has been cool. I'd says the Jam Cruise experience in general, too. I'd almost put that as an entirely different entity from what I've done.

Is there anything else that you would like to say that you want the world to know?

I’m really grateful to be able to practice what I have been practicing since I was a kid. And to see it go through all of its different manifestations, and to be able to really have direct contact with people of like minds through my craft is a really humbling thing.  It's something that I'm only more grateful for the more that it moves forward. It’s nice because it never stagnates. It always is kind of changing and processing in different ways and it keeps me very vital and keeps me young in a way. But at the same time I feel like I get a little more enriched spiritually and mentally with each thing that I do.

Like many citizens, I’ve been peripherally keeping my eye on the national movement for Voter ID laws but haven’t been too concerned.  What about our budget crises? Government shutdown?  Libya?

In recent weeks, however, I have started to pay more attention in North Carolina because I read the proposed NC House Bill 351 (S352).  This law would immediately disenfranchise nearly half a million active lifelong voters in North Carolina, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of inactive or new voters.

Notably, the bill would drastically affect one of my favorite parts of registering voters with HeadCount … signing up 17-year-olds who will be 18 “on or before election day.”  I have countless wonderful memories over the past 7 years of registering voters in this category for the first time when they were at concerts with their parents.

In addition to eliminating registration of eager 17 year olds, the proposed bill would affect college students as they would not be able to use their student ID or out-of-state ID at the polls; it would turn away newcomers and young professionals by eliminating on-site registration during the early voting period; it would deter elderly, homeless and veterans who may not have valid driver’s licenses or be able to locate their Social Security Card or Birth Certificates in order to obtain a state-issued ID; and it would impact the poor who cannot afford the fees associated with getting updated documentation to secure a state issued photo ID.

I now know that the proposed NC Voter ID Bill isn’t just about having people verify their identity at the polls, which while a hassle, seems like a simple enough request.  Anything to stop voter fraud, right?

Wrong. First, you should know that there isn’t a significant problem with voter fraud in North Carolina.  This bill takes every measure possible to make voting and registration harder and more complicated and doesn’t even address the few instances of voter fraud that have occurred.

This morning I joined many North Carolinians of all ages and races at a nonpartisan rally on the steps of our General Assembly to speak out against the Voter ID Law.  The line of speakers included college students, homeless, elderly, disabled veterans, elected officials and many more.  Each affected demographic talked about how the proposed law would make voting hard or impossible for their peers.

North Carolina NAACP President Reverend Doctor William Barber II closed out today’s rally with a series of cries for justice beginning with “call it like it is.”  I keep playing his cry that “Voter ID laws are nothing but nuanced Jim Crow … we should CALL IT LIKE IT IS” over and over in my mind.

And he is right.  It is time to call it like it is.  46 years ago our country passed the Voting Rights Act to give African American citizens the right to vote.  That is in the lifetime of our parents, grandparents, teachers and friends.  But we’re forgetting that fight as we glaze over the racist Voter ID legislation that is sweeping states across our country.  We’re forgetting that these Voter ID Laws violate the 15th Amendment, which prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude" (i.e., slavery). It was ratified on February 3, 1870. And here we are again with a concerted effort to keep minorities and certain populations from the polls.

NC House 351’s title, “Restore Confidence in Government,” really says it all.  This bill is sponsored by 4 white women and 29 white men to restore confidence that only people like them will be able to vote and be elected.  State Representative Larry Bell called out the sponsor’s hypocrisy on the steps of the General Assembly today … “Let them resign if the voting process is so fraudulent!” How can the sponsoring representatives and senators claim that they were voted in this year to represent the needed change in our legislature and also claim that they have no confidence in the voting process?  We must speak to the illogical nature of the Voter ID Bills and “call it like it is.”

According to a nonpartisan study by Democracy NC, the direct effect of “Restore Confidence in Government” will lead to a decrease in ability to vote as follows:

These numbers are the harsh reality of disenfranchisement.  How can the sponsors of this bill think we will be so blind as to ignore that they are proposing targeted legislation?

Let’s be brave and face the truth. Racism, ageism, classism, these are forms of discrimination and it is time to “call it like it is.”

Let’s get outraged.  Let’s face the fact that these reactive laws are destroying our country’s history of democracy that REQUIRES EQUALITY IN VOTING!  I’m one that believes our system works when everyone votes. Do you? Why would we put up roadblocks? More importantly, why would we sit around and allow a few to reverse our history of action and struggle for equal voting rights?

Voter ID laws aren’t just going to go away or not really effect the process.  These laws are a tragic backwards step for democracy that is motivated by a fear of diversified voters.  I don’t want to be another 30-year-old white girl afraid to “call it like it is.”

Efforts in New Hampshire to disenfranchise the young have been stopped for now.

Last month, New Hampshire Representative Gregory Sorg (R) sponsored a bill that would require college students to establish residency in their college towns before they enroll in school, if they want to vote there. This would exclude most students from the voting process.

The proposed bill is a clear affront to young voters, but Sorg's colleague House Speaker, Bill O'Brien added insult to injury by criticizing the intelligence and decision making ability of young people, calling them "foolish" and accusing them of "just [voting] their feelings." Watch the video here:

Rock the Vote took an early and strong stand, promoting their Voter Suppression is Un-American campaign. RTV's Vice President, Thomas Bates labeled the proposal a "War on Voting" early this week. Students in New Hampshire and across the country staged protests against the proposed bill. The good news: earlier today, a committee voted that the House not pass the bill. This may not be the last we've seen of this (or similar) bills, but for now young people can celebrate their continued enfranchisement.

You must have heard about the now 10 days of protests by union workers in Wisconsin, aka “Crisis in Dairyland: Revenge of the Curds” (via The Daily Show). But did you hear about Thursday’s ploy to lure the Democratic Senators back to the capitol by debating a bill that would require voters to show photo-ID before casting a vote?  No?

The Wisconsin photo ID bill was the most stringent of the more than 20 states that have introduced or indicated they will introduce such legislation. The original bill called for voters to show an ID which had been issued to them by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) in order to vote. That would mean that anyone with an out-of-state driver’s license, a military ID, a student ID, a Tribal ID, even a U.S. passport, would have to go to the Wisconsin DOT and get another ID just to be able to vote.  Not to mention all those people without photo-ID who would have to obtain one.

Proponents of photo-ID bills claim that the new law will stop in-person voting fraud, but there are no examples of such fraud occurring on a remotely widespread basis. The primary outcome of the bill is that it would undoubtedly lower the number of students and economically disadvantaged people who vote in Wisconsin. Because these populations traditionally vote for Democrats in larger numbers, it’s no surprise (almost clever) that Republicans would use this threat as a ploy to get Democrats back to the State House.

Some amendments adopted by the Wisconsin Senate on Thursday expand the types of photo-ID that a voter can show before voting, which is definitely an improvement, but if the bill passes there will still be hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin residents that don’t have a driver’s license or state ID card (disproportionately those who are elderly, women, minorities, students, or disabled voters) and will have to get one in order to vote.

Getting a DOT ID might not sound hard, but there are two huge obstacles: first, many people don’t have the documents they need to prove who they are (e.g. they might not have a birth certificate or copy of their naturalization papers); and second, many more can’t get to a DOT during the few hours of the week that they are open due to busy work, and school schedules.

Meanwhile, there are many ways that proof of identity can be required without it being a barrier to voting for many people. For example in Nevada they simply require voters to sign the roll and compare that signature to the signature on file for the voter. In Virginia they ask for photo or non-photo-ID (such as a utility bill or bank statement), but also give you the option of executing an affidavit of identity.

Unfortunately, it’s not only Wisconsin that wants to introduce a photo ID law for voting.  Bills have been filed in over 20 states, and it’s being given serious consideration in Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas and there have been discussions in North Carolina though no bill has yet been filed. There are currently 7 states which require photo-ID to vote.

For the time being, the Wisconsin bill is on hold.  It includes a fiscal note (it costs a lot of money to introduce a photo ID law) and that can’t be voted on without the magic quorum number of 20 senators present.  But it’s clear this fight is far from over.

Ruth Greenwood is a staff attorney with the Fair Elections Legal Network.

A movement is afoot in New Hampshire to bar college students from registering to vote where they go to school.  As the Boston Globe reported last week, the New Hampshire legislature is considering a bill that would "take away students’ right to vote in their college town unless they lived there before enrolling and intended to stay."

The "Live Free or Die" state has been down this road before.  Last time, however, the bill ran into a dead end called the Constitution. The United States Supreme Court ruled in 1972 that "the town of Hanover [N.H.] could not bar a Dartmouth College student from voting because his parents lived in Hawaii and he planned to leave Hanover after graduation."

Why, you may ask, is New Hampshire considering this law now?  Well, one hint comes from Republican William O’Brien, the New Hampshire Speaker of the House and a noted critic of student voting.  While he has not publicly commented on this bill in particular, he has famously said in the past that students are “basically doing what I did when I was a kid and foolish, and voting as a liberal.’’

This kind of politically motivated move to suppress student voting is not a new thing. In 2008, the register of elections in Montgomery County Virginia, the seat of Virginia Tech University, sent out warnings that students who registered to vote at their college "could no longer be claimed as dependents on their parents’ tax returns, a statement the Internal Revenue Service says is incorrect," and that they "could lose scholarships or coverage under their parents’ car and health insurance." After pressure, the registrar eventually relented and issued "clarifications" on the matter.

Still, there are states that have laws on the books requiring students to declare an intent to remain in the state in order to register to vote there. The non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice publishes a list of state-by-state student voting laws.

Laws and policies like the one being proposed in New Hampshire have one purpose: disenfranchisement.  Strangely, the same community that welcomes the financial benefits that students bring seem to be trying to turn their backs on these same students when it comes to giving them a voice in local governance.  The New Hampshire bill's lead sponsor, Republican Gregory Sorg, said that the intention is to eliminate voters who lack true community ties from influencing elections, particularly in small towns.

“This doesn’t disenfranchise anyone. You have a domicile from the time you are born,’’ he told the Boston Globe, noting that students could still vote by absentee ballot in their home states under his bill.

Of course, there are no colleges in Sorg's district. This tired old "protect the character of the community" canard is the essential historical ingredient in all flavors of voter suppression. Really, it's always been about protecting those already in power.

Aung San Suu Kyi (pronounced "ahng sahn soo chee") was released this weekend from an on again, off again house arrest in Burma that has spanned fifteen of the last twenty-one years. She was arrested in July of 1989 because of her involvement with the National League for Democracy, a political party that opposed the ruling regime. In Burma’s 1990 general elections her pro-Democracy political party won a convincing victory but the will of the people went unfulfilled: The government was kept under the control of its ruling military junta and Aung San Suu Kyi remained imprisoned.

Her release comes on the heels of an election last week in Myanmar that President Obama characterized as “neither free nor fair.” (Myanmar and Burma are one in the same. Here’s an explanation for the identity crisis).  Some see Aung San Suu Kyi’s release as a moment of hope for Burma, where life is repressive and ethnic strife is frequent.  Others, however, point out that with strings attached to her activities by the ruling military junta, the release (her third in over two decades) could end the same way as the first two - as an act of political theater.  We’ll know in the days and weeks to come whether this time is for real.  Public appearances outside of her home in Rangoon and meetings with journalists and diplomats in the last twenty-four hours are a promising sign.

The human rights issues in Burma have been an important cause for HeadCount artist Al Schnier, guitarist of moe., who brought Burmese monks to moe.down 2009 for discussions and the screening of the documentary Burma VJ. We spoke with Al about this weekend's news. He said:

The release of Aung San Suu Kyi, after so many years of wrongful imprisonment, is a great step in the right direction for Burma. It can give us hope that the efforts around the globe to raise awareness and bring this cause to light have been effective. Hopefully, the military regime will follow by releasing all other dissidents, monks and others who have been wrongfully imprisoned. With hope, one day the people of Burma can be free and democratic again.

HeadCount artist Brett Dennen has also gotten involved, releasing this video with the U.S. Campaign for Burma, titled “Follow Your Heart (Burma It Can't Wait)".