Number of the Day

75: The approximate number of years Ms. Dorothy Cooper of Tennessee has been voting. She has voted in every election since the 1930s (except in the 1960 Kennedy/Nixon race, as she had moved too close to Election Day to have time to update her registration), but has now been disenfranchised by voter suppression laws Republicans are pursuing because they can't win on a fair playing field.

As Rachel Maddow details in the below clip, a new law passed by the Republican-ruled Tennessee state legislature this year requires voters to show photo ID in order to cast a ballot. Ms. Cooper, who has never driven and thus never had a driver's license, went to the DMV to get a state ID, but because her married name did not match the name on her birth certificate, and because she doesn't have her marriage certificate, she was not issued the ID. Now, 96-year-old Dorothy Cooper, who has been voting in Tennessee since the 1930s, will not be allowed to vote in the next election.


[Transcript here, beginning at "This is Dorothy Cooper."]
[Via Brad.]