A real threat to Obama comes to this presidential campaign

Requirements for voting, such as documentation with photos, difficulties in the electoral register and rules on criminal past are restricting the right to vote to millions of potential voters in the U.S. in actions that may influence the choice between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain as the next occupant the White House on Nov. 4.

According to analysts is a clear pattern of problems that affect young, elderly and minorities, including blacks – who tend to vote for Democrats.

“Neither party has clean hands,” says Adam Skaggs, a lawyer and researcher at Brennan Center for Justice at the University of New York. “But most attempts to restrict voting is from Republicans, who fear the effect on voters of the large volume of new Democratic voters this year.”

The problems appear more often in states where the competition is fierce, as North Carolina and Indiana. And there are already concerns over a new “Florida” – referring to problems of counting of votes in the state that in 2000, left in the hands of the Supreme Court decision on the outcome of the election.

The question that many do is: the outcome of the election will be decisive enough to avoid a “new Florida”?

Via: Folha.