Voter Disenfranchisement?

THIS is the second recent Washington Post article to mention voter disenfranchisement and voter intimidation:

...There exists a profound and urgent need for the black church to rise up to the challenge of the moment and to unleash its power, implore its membership and lend its resources to make sure the communities they represent are able to fight these latest attempts at disenfranchisement and voter intimidation....

The article goes on to state the following:

In the age of Obama, this has become somewhat of a challenge. The relentless and unjustifiable assaults against the President, which in too many cases are not about policy differences, have caused many in the black church to withhold criticism. They fear giving inadvertent cover to those who have made it their mission to see him fail, even if it means taking our country down with him.

The other article I mentioned in the first sentence of this post states are follows:

The U.S. Constitution is under assault.

So much so that maybe we ought to inscribe this Latin phrase, Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate, or Abandon all hope, ye who enter here, on it alongside the other weighty ideas. This is particularly true for African Americans on the lower economic rungs.

We need immediate grass-roots support because the right to vote will no longer be a sacrosanct and safeguarded principle if conservatives have their way. That was the thinking of many who gathered in the nation’s capital for the recent Congressional Black Caucus weekend.

Barbara R. Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under Law since 1989, said a “voting rights wall of shame” is being erected in this country that could disenfranchise minorities and youth in 2012. Just last week, a federal judge in the District reaffirmed the continued need for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and its extensions after a challenge by Shelby County, Alabama....

[...]

...[W]e are still on the battlefield for full enfranchisement. As a response to the clear and decisive disenfranchisement agenda of the right, the U.S. Constitution needs to be amended to make the right to vote explicit!

Is there a reason I'm seeing these two recent references to voter disenfranchisement and voter intimidation?

Are any of you seeing similar references in other venues?