Posted on 01/15/2012 9:48:54 AM PST by justiceseeker93
Gov Haley could have gone straight to court over the new Voter ID law but chose instead to submit it to the DOJ for approval. Of course, Holder had a fit, claiming that thousands of South Carolinians would be disenfranchised by this cruel and unfair law.
IMHO, he doesn't have much to stand on. By law the Voter IDs are free. Just go the DMV and get one. Gov Haley even set up a toll free number people could call to get a ride to the DMV in case they had no transportation. Last I heard they had gotten 30 calls.
SC has bent over backwards to make getting a Voter ID as painless as possible.
Gov. Haley and the State AG have filed suit against the DOJ. SC's law is virtually identical to the laws from Georgia and Indiana. From the Maimi Herald:
One other thought. I have worked the polls here in SC since 2003. A good 90-95% of voters use their picture driver’s license as ID to vote. So, what’s the big deal?
Did I hear that Holder is supposed to be in SC tomorrow for MLK Day?
Thanks for the “inside” info, upchuck.
Eaton: Many needs for photo ID in Illinois, but not to vote
By Fran Eaton
Last Modified: Jan 11, 2012 09:28AM
Illinois rang in the new year with more than 200 new state laws, and one in particular clearly demonstrates how state lawmakers allow emotions and partisanship to rule over logic and consistency.
Last spring, state Rep. Susana Mendoza (D-Chicago) brought before the Legislature the victim of a random sulfuric-acid attack. Scarred from the violent assault, Karli Butler testified about her experience, and soon after, the General Assembly voted unanimously for Mendoza’s bill to stop the unregulated sale of caustic acid-based products.
Today in Illinois, if you buy a container of Drano or any other similar drain corrosive, you need to show an identification card with a photo and register the purchase in a store-maintained log book. If the store does not enforce the law, they could be fined $1,500.
Mendoza said she proposed the law so people think twice before buying caustic materials and carrying out violent attacks.
Tanya Triche, an attorney with the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, testified that making law-abiding citizens register to purchase common household products such as nail polish remover and tire cleaner would not prevent another tragedy. It simply adds another regulatory burden on retail businesses.
But it’s not only Drano that requires a photo ID for purchase in Illinois. Photo IDs also are required to buy spray paint, certain indelible markers and over-the-counter, liquid cold medicines. And liquor and cigarettes if the legal age is in question.
But photo IDs are not required in Illinois to vote. For several years, bills have been proposed in the Legislature to require a photo ID before voting on Election Day. The Democrats in control of both Illinois chambers have not allowed a vote on any of those proposals.
Last spring, state Rep. Randy Ramey (R-Addison) introduced legislation that would allow an alternative voter registration card that could be used by those without a government-issued photo ID. Ramey asked that proof of residency — such as a current utility bill, annual Social Security letter or mortgage payment receipt — also be used, but Democrats soundly rejected the idea.
Until last year, only two states (Indiana and Georgia) required photo ID cards to vote. Since then, voter ID laws have been introduced in 34 states. Five enacted them, and governors in five other states vetoed them.
The concern about voter ID cards has also reached the federal level. The Justice Department just rejected South Carolina’s newly enacted voter ID law, saying it would prevent up to 20 percent of voting-age South Carolinians from voting in the 2012 election. Gov. Nikki Haley says the state will appeal the department’s ruling.
Groups such as AARP are concerned about the effect of voter ID laws on minorities, the disabled and senior citizens. About 11 percent of adult citizens — more than 21 million people — lack a valid, government-issued photo ID, according to a study by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.
“Most people prove their eligibility to vote with a driver’s license, but people over 65 often give up their license and don’t replace it with the state-issued ID that some states offer non-driving residents,” according to a recent AARP newsletter. “People over 65 also are more likely to lack birth certificates because they were born before recording births was standard procedure.”
And AARP says it’s joining with the Obama re-election campaign, the Congressional Black Caucus and other Democratic groups to fight the voter ID laws.
“AARP continues to be very troubled by voter ID laws,” Daniel B. Kohrman, an attorney with the AARP Foundation, said. “An older person whose passport has expired, whose driver’s license has expired, who has to go to the trouble of digging out a birth certificate may just say to heck with it.”
But neither the Justice Department, the Congressional Black Caucus nor AARP had any problems with New Black Panther Party activists standing outside a Philadelphia polling place in 2008, hoisting intimidating nightsticks as registered voters entered and exited. The Justice Department’s indifference to the situation led a longtime staffer to resign.
In 2010, J. Christian Adams, an ex-Justice official, testified before a civil rights commission that Justice Department leaders had instructed their attorneys to ignore cases like that involving the New Black Panther Party activists that involved black defendants and white victims.
Apparently, it’s not the over-65 voting bloc, unable to get a state-distributed photo ID, that we need to be so concerned about keeping from the voting booths in 2012.
Be aware, seniors, if you live in Illinois, have clogged drains, stuffy sinuses, need to take a flight to see your grandkids or enter a federal courthouse, you’ll be forced to show a government-issued photo ID.
But you and anyone else who wants to can vote without one.
See what emotion over logic gets us?
Fran Eaton is a Southland resident who co-founded and edits the conservative political blog, illinoisreview.com
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