Bill Keller, Former NYTimes Editor, Says Voter ID Laws Only About 'Disenfranchising' Democrats

July 13th, 2012 1:07 PM

On Thursday's edition of the New York Times's daily TimesCast, liberal columnists Charles Blow and Bill Keller discussed Mitt Romney's appearance at the NAACP convention (which Keller, the paper's former executive editor, found condescending).

They took on the issue of voter ID laws in various states. Over a montage of still photos of blacks in line to vote, Keller called voter fraud "kind of a tiny problem comapred to voter participation." Blow one-upped Keller, saying "not just a tiny problem I mean, it's minuscule."

Nineteen minutes in, Keller responded to a Blow query on how a new voter ID law will play in Pennsylvania. Keller saw only a sinister disenfranchisement strategy on the part of Republicans, and Blow agreed.

Keller: "Well I think what you're getting at is this is not about voter fraud. It's about disenfranchising specific constituencies who tend to vote Democratic. Nobody's going to say that who supports it, but that what it's really about."

Blow: "Right, right, right."