YES, MA'AM!

Hillary Clinton ain't messing around:

Saying there is a sweeping effort underway across the country to disenfranchise people of color from voting, Hillary Clinton called for universal, automatic voter registration for every citizen when they turn 18, at a speech at Texas Southern University in Houston, one of the largest historically black colleges in the nation.

"I think this would have a profound impact on our elections and our democracy," she said.

People would be able to opt out of being automatically registered under the proposal, Clinton said. She also called for the adoption of an early voting standard of at least 20 days before an election across the country, along with increased availability to online voter registration and reduced waiting times on election day.

...Clinton also sought to connect the life of Barbara Jordan, who was the first woman and first African American woman ever elected to represent Texas in the House of Representatives, and her fight for the Voting Rights Act, to the current climate, where she said the law has had its "heart ripped out."

Damn. And in case that wasn't enough for you, she explicitly called out the Republican conspiracy to disenfranchise voters and named names:

Clinton called out some of her likely Republican opponents by name, accusing them of launching a "crusade against voting rights" and for "fearmongering about a phantom epidemic of election fraud"...

[S]he condemned laws that she said suppress voting, particularly among minorities and young people and called out GOP lawmakers for "systemically and deliberately trying to stop millions of American citizens from voting."

"What is happening is a sweeping effort to disempower and disenfranchise people of color, poor people and young people, from one end of our country to another," Clinton said...

"Here in Texas, former governor Rick Perry signed a law that a federal court said was actually written with a purpose of discriminating against minority voters," Clinton said. "He applauded when the Voting Rights Act was gutted. And said the lost protections were outdated and unnecessary."

"But Governor Perry is hardly alone in his crusade against voting rights," Clinton added. "In Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker cut back early voting and signed legislation that would make it harder for college students to vote. In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie vetoed legislation to extend early voting. And in Florida, when Jeb Bush was governor, state authorities conducted a deeply flawed purge of voters before the presidential election in 2000."

She also "denounced the Supreme Court's 2013 ruling" on voting rights.

Well HELLO, Madam Candidate!

I forgot how much I loved when Hillary Clinton goes medieval on the Republicans. "Fearmongering about a phantom epidemic of election fraud." Beautiful.

I really like this proposal, too, by the way. I'm generally not a fan of "opt-out" measures, but, the thing is, voting is a right. It isn't something to which we should be having to opt in.

Also: Adoption of a national early voting standard: A+. Increased online voter registration: A+. Reduced waiting times on election day (presumably including longer voting hours): A+. Rolling back provisions that make it harder for people to vote: A+.

Someone pass Clinton a note that we should make Election Day a national holiday, too!