This report, which I linked to yesterday, describes a controversy over a billboard (click here to see the picture). The Lawyer’s Committee makes a good point that putting these billboards only in minority neighborhoods suggests an attempt to stigmatize minority voters as criminals. I find it repugnant.

But the committee also says the billboards “attach an implicit threat of criminal prosecution to the civic act of voting.”  Further, a new statement by the AFL-CIO says the billboards are “intimidating” and Think Progress says that the signs “are far more likely… to intimidate lawful voters who are unsure of their rights and may be spooked from voting by the threat of a felony conviction.”

I find this hard to believe.  This is an odious publicity stunt by some conservatives who want to fan the flames and make it seem like voter fraud is a major problem in minority communities.  If anything, this effort could backfire and increase turnout among minority voters.  I describe similar such attempts in Chapter 3 of The Voting Wars.