Last month, President Obama reminded us that we all have a personal stake in the outcome of November’s federal elections. The president fairly and accurately dissected the two competing visions advanced by Republicans and Democrats as to how America can best grow our economy and pay down our national debt.

I recommend that every American thoughtfully consider Barack Obama’s June 14 Ohio remarks on the Internet – but, here is the core of his message:

The Republicans are asserting the same failed, “top-down” and “trickle-down” economic proposals that have burdened working families and our poor since the administration of George W. Bush.

President Barack Obama believes that there is a better way. We should invest in the American people, in our talents and in our demonstrated capacity for innovation and hard work.

On the merits, I agree with the president, as would most Americans – if allowed a fair vote on the issues next November.

The Republicans’ political challenge is clear. In a fair election in which all eligible American voters could choose between these two competing visions for our future, the Republicans’ candidates and failed policies would not prevail.

We already have tried tax breaks for the rich and powerful, lax regulation, and taxing working Americans for most of the cost of our national responsibilities. How, I must ask, have those unfair Bush-era policies worked out for everyday citizens like you and me?

This, I suspect, is why Mitt Romney and his allies among the “One Percent” are devoting so much effort to suppressing our voting power next November.

Beginning in 2009, the governors and state legislatures in “swing states” like Florida began to pass “Voter Identification” and other laws designed to limit voter registration drives and to make voting more difficult for minorities, the elderly, students and the disabled (groups who were important forces in President Obama’s 2008 election).

In Florida, for example, the Republicans enacted an onerous new voter registration law with criminal penalties – a law that has been challenged in court by the League of Women Voters. Last month, a federal court blocked enforcement of that Florida law.

In his ruling, U.S. Judge Robert Hinkle declared that “together speech and voting are constitutional rights of special significance; they are the rights most protective of all others, joined in this respect by the ability to vindicate one’s rights in a federal court. When a loses an opportunity to register a voter, the opportunity is gone forever.”

I am cautiously optimistic that our federal appellate courts will affirm Judge Hinckle’s ruling, upholding the Florida voter registration efforts that, once again, are underway. However, Florida’s Republican governor now has given voting rights advocates another mountain to climb.

Gov. Rick Scott has ordered his state’s Elections Division and Department of Motor Vehicles to compare voter rolls with driver’s licenses (which may have out-of-date citizenship information). Voters deemed “suspicious” have been sent letters demanding that they produce proof of citizenship within 30 days if they want to vote.

Among those receiving those chilling letters is Mr. Bill Internicola, who was born in Brooklyn in 1921 and earned the Bronze Star during the Battle of the Bulge.

Overall, the {Miami Herald} found, 58 percent of the people on the “suspicious” list are Hispanic and 14 percent are Black.

Are we surprised?

Florida, and other jurisdictions now conducting similar voter purges (including Colorado and New Mexico), are “swing states” with large Hispanic populations who are inclined to support President Obama.

Yet, New Mexico’s investigation of 64,000 “suspicious” voter registrations found only 19 cases of voters who (possibly) were non-citizens.

If all of this pre-election trickery seems familiar, one need only recall Florida’s infamous purge of its voter rolls in 2000–leading up to the questionable election of President George W. Bush.

Gov. Scott and the Republicans need to be reminded that we have not forgotten “Florida 2000.” Neither has the U.S. Department of Justice.

On June 12, Thomas Perez, the Assistant U.S. Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Division, announced that the federal government has taken action to halt Florida’s latest voter “purge.”

Our Justice Department has filed suit against the State of Florida, asserting violation of the National Voter Registration Act.

“The Department of Justice has an overriding interest in protecting the rights of eligible citizens to register and vote free from unlawful burdens,” Perez has declared. Once again, I agree — as should all Americans who believe in the sanctity of our constitutional right to vote.

Americans deserve a fair and complete vote on President Obama’s and Mitt Romney’s competing visions for our future. Florida 2000 should never again be allowed.

Congressman Elijah Cummings represents Maryland’s 7th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.