LIVE CHAT: Colorlines.com Reporters on the Threat to Voting Rights in 2012

Watch--and join--a conversation about the 2012 elections and the growing rightwing attack on the right to vote.

By Kai Wright Aug 23, 2012

**At 12 PM EST today readers are invited to join us for a [Voting Rights Watch 2012](https://colorlines.com/brentin-mock/) live chat, organized in partnership with TheNation.com.** The chat will feature Colorlines.com reporters [Brentin Mock](https://colorlines.com/archives/author/brentin-mock/) and [Aura Bogado](https://colorlines.com/archives/author/aura-bogado/), along with Nation reporter Ari Berman. Brentin Mock will discuss his [months-long investigation, published today, on True the Vote’s rapidly growing influence in rightwing political circles](https://colorlines.com/archives/2012/08/true_the_votes_large_and_growing_far-right_network.html) and lay out the connections that have driven the voter fraud meme in the run up to the 2012 election. From the recently upheld voter ID law in Pennsylvania to purges of voter rolls in New Mexico to state challenges to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the last few years have seen a proliferation of state laws that threaten to disenfranchise millions of voters. Passed under the guise of combating the virtually nonexistent problem of voter fraud, the laws target poor people, people of color, the elderly and students, and threaten to roll back the clock on voting rights in ways not seen since before the civil rights era. Activists and voting rights advocates are fighting back, but what will the landscape look like this November and going forward? What is the future of the Voting Rights Act? And what effect would proposed reforms, such as a national id card, have on guaranteeing the right to vote for historically disenfranchised communities? After a discussion amongst our panelists, Colorlines.com and The Nation will invite you–our readers–to submit your best questions and comments. While anyone can watch the chat, you will need to be signed into Spreecast, Twitter or Facebook to submit questions.