Durbin to assess new Ohio voting law in Monday hearing

“Worryingly, a spate of recently passed state voting laws seem designed to restrict voting by making it harder for millions of disabled, young, minority, rural, elderly, homeless, and low income Americans to vote,” he said last month. “Protecting the right of every citizen to vote and ensuring that our elections are fair and transparent are not Democratic or Republican values, they are American values.”

{mosads}Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) said Tuesday that she would testify at the field hearing in Ohio, and said HB 194 and other state laws are aimed explicitly at restricting the votes of minorities and others.

“What is happening in Ohio is not unique,” she said. “By design, more than 30 states are erecting barriers to voting by pre-determined groups including seniors, students, minorities and the working poor. I will continue to speak out wherever these efforts occur and certainly on behalf of voters in the 11th district.”

The Senate Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, which Durbin chairs, has already held two hearings on state voting laws, including a field hearing on a new Florida law that it held in January.

The hearings follow several months of criticism from Democrats, who have said the laws are the result of Republican efforts to rig the November election. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said in December that Republicans were purposefully trying to turn away minority voters in states that have voter ID laws.