Posted on 02/27/2009 12:25:36 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
A bill that would require voters to present a photo ID at the polls won key approval from the S.C. House on Thursday, but not before House Democrats — equating the proposal to segregation-era efforts to disenfranchise voters — walked out.
About 30 members of the Legislative Black Caucus and other House Democrats staged the walkout as debate moved into its fourth hour and it became clear the bill would pass.
“You’ve made it clear it’s your way or the highway,” state Rep. David Weeks, chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, said to House Republicans, moments before the walkout. “There are many of us who will not take ‘your way.’ We will take the highway.”
After Democrats marched out of the House chamber, the bill — which would require voters to present a valid S.C. driver’s license, passport, military ID or other photo ID approved by the state Department of Motor Vehicles at the polls — passed 65 to 14.
Currently, voters at the polls can present a voter registration card that does not feature a photo.
Republicans said the bill is a safeguard against voter fraud. It is based on Indiana’s voter ID law, which was upheld last year by the U.S. Supreme Court. Georgia has a similar law.
“Integrity in the ballot leads to greater voter participation,” said state Rep. Alan Clemmons, R-Horry, noting Indiana has seen an increase in voter participation since its law went into effect.
“To say that requiring a picture ID to vote creates an undue burden is absurd,” said House Speaker Bobby Harrell, who sponsored the bill. “A picture ID is required to do just about anything in our society, except to vote.”
Of the state’s nearly 2.9 million registered voters, more than 2.2 million already have a state-issued photo ID, according to the House Judiciary Committee.
Democrats questioned the need for photo IDs.
They said there were no official reports of voter fraud in South Carolina’s 2008 general election and charged the bill’s goal is to suppress voter turnout among the elderly, the poor and other likely Democratic voters.
“This is clearly a backlash against (President) Obama,” said state Rep. Chris Hart, D-Richland.
In November’s general election, a record 1.9 million S.C. voters cast ballots, including many African-Americans and young voters who overwhelmingly favored Democrat Barack Obama.
The influx of new voters has raised Democrats’ hopes of building a stronger state party and winning more legislative and statewide races in coming elections.
“The more people who vote, (the Republicans) lose control and power,” Hart said. “They want to keep control of the State House and the state.”
Weeks and S.C. NAACP president Lonnie Randolph said they will consider legal action if the bill passes the Senate.
“It’s analogous to literacy tests, to poll taxes,” said Randolph, who said his father had to interpret portions of the Mississippi Constitution before being allowed to vote decades ago. “We know what this is about.”
Clemmons and other Republicans called the charges of attempts to dissuade voters from casting ballots a sham.
“I wish we had 100 percent (voter) participation,” said state Rep. Mike Pitts, R-Laurens, who backed the bill. “Then I wouldn’t get so many uneducated questions about what we’re doing down here. I see (the bill) as security, to be able to identify that the person is who they say they are.”
Republicans struck down 23 amendments Democrats offered, including ones to allow recent utility bills and work ID cards as identification, and another to exempt the elderly and disabled from the ID requirement.
The bill, scheduled to receive final House approval today before heading to the Senate, would cost the state Transportation Department nearly $1 million.
Republicans included language that repeals the $5 fee for a state-issued photo ID, making it more affordable for South Carolinians to get IDs.
Waiving the fee could cost the Transportation Department’s highway fund more than $700,000 a year. That fund pays to resurface state roads.
“In these times, they’re taking away money from an economic development fund,” said state Rep. Bakari Sellers, D-Bamberg. “It doesn’t make sense.”
So Blockbuster, which requires ID of some form, is racist?
ACORN will spend millions of YOUR dollars fighting this...
Vote fraud has become SOP within the Black Democrat world..
TO: Democrats — Most things political are not based on race. These Leftist morons make me sick.
Funny, how each state says I must buckle my seat belt when driving, and must show a valid lic. with my picture on it, if asked, but then not a damn one knows what illegal means if used after the word ‘’alien’’ or ‘’voter’’. I’m getting damn tired of the 2-faced bast-rds.
"Waiving the fee could cost the Transportation Department’s highway fund more than $700,000 a year."
700,000 will pave how much roadway? I am constantly told in my state, that it costs more than 100,000 per mile.
The Republicans also made getting an ID FREE.
Is this person saying that black people can't get a FREE I.D. and show it at the polls in order to protect their votes?
If this is to suppress voter turnout, it's a really stupid way of doing it...unless those voters SHOULDN'T be voting in the first place.
This whole article could have been written from a point of view that it was protecting the integrity and value of black people’s votes.
Don’t walk away mad a**holes, just walk away.
Its mail-in votes that we should be more concerned about imho. Ppl who have the physically walk in and vote mulitple times is alot difficult than mail-in vote frauds
Now I can ping you just once.
TO: Democrats — Most things political are not based on race. These Leftist morons make me sick.
Oh, but you made a big mistake.
Everything in leftyworld is based on race.
All chocolates have to march in lockstep with their god, the Democrat party.
I find African Americans alot more racist than white Americans. They see everything in terms of race. They see themselves as victims because of injustice that was done to their ancestors, so current generations who were not involved must compensate African Americans,, because of pass wrongs
In the late summer we went to a U.S. Consulate General and spent a great deal of time going through the books for correct procedures for getting our ballots for the 2008 General Election delivered to us. We were very careful, fulfilling everything to the letter, as published in State Department publications.
The applications for our ballot were not sent by mail, but were handled through the Consular mail to the States. That is, they took our materials, sealed up, at the Citizens Services Section at the Consulate for delivery to our state authorities.
We had to identify ourselves to Consular officials by presenting our passports in person.
WE NEVER RECEIVED OUR BALLOTS — haven't received them yet.
I mentioned this in a letter to a former member of our state's House of Representatives who is very familiar with federal departments. He simply said to me, “State is full of leftists.”
I wouldn't know if “State is full of leftists” or not, and I am NOT here accusing the U.S. State Department or the Consulate of deliberately canning our request for our ballots.
All we know is, we did not receive our ballots, and that letters we have sent to ascertain the reason have not been answered.
Actually, it is the second time this has happened. The first time was back in 1976 while I was in the Air Force. I requested my ballot from California (where my official residence was while I was in the military). Never received my ballot.
Since November, I have written something like 30 letters on various policy issues to my elected representatives.
Being denied our right to vote has made more diligent activists out of my wife and I. We are writing many more letters these days -— six in the past week with regard to the “stimulus,” health care, Second Amendment, and education.
Every letter we write, regardless of the issue, and regardless of the level of government, is copied to:
The White House
Two U.S. Senators
U.S. Representative
State Governor
State Senator
State Representative
County Commissioners
County Sheriff
If I write to my Sheriff, the White House gets a copy. If I write to my U.S. Senators, our county Sheriff gets a copy.
Our very house in the USA just about sits on the line between two State House Rep. districts, AND on the line between two U.S. Congressional districts.
It was a little absurd trying to determine just who is my State Rep. My neighbors didn't know !!! The map on the state web site differentiating the districts is not very clear. When supplying my house address, even the district officials had to check four different times to be able to tell me who represents me in the State Capitol.
The first letter I wrote to a state rep. was to the WRONG rep. That representative SCOLDED me for sending letters to her about federal issues. I scolded her back(!!) and reminded her that what happens in Washington D.C. affects the state, and she ought to know what our concerns and opinions are.
PHOTO ID REQUIRED TO GET A BALLOT AT THE POLLS — So simple, and so obvious! Only those who intend for people to usurp the process for their own agenda could disagree with that one.
Somebody in South Carolina wants ILLEGALS to vote, and they want radicals to vote more than one time. THAT is the reason they don't want the presentation of photo IDs.
No. They won't need ACORN. They have the Justice Department now. All those vote fraud cases will disappear while Justice diligently pursues cases against Voter ID states. With the right judges, they may very well succeed in shutting it down.
(ACORN may do some more registration drives, but their minions will now be used for in-your-face demonstrations against anyone or any organization that appears to be getting any traction against Obama's agenda. I don't mean just politicians. I'm talking about private citizens, news outlets, business persons, think tanks, etc.)
Finally got through those thick skulls.
If we could only get them to stay gone.
Ahhhh... the memories. Reminds me of an old song....
"Hit the road, Jack And dontcha come back no more...
Republicans said the bill is a safeguard against voter fraud. It is based on Indiana’s voter ID law, which was upheld last year by the U.S. Supreme Court. Georgia has a similar law.
“Integrity in the ballot leads to greater voter participation,” said state Rep. Alan Clemmons, R-Horry, noting Indiana has seen an increase in voter participation since its law went into effect.
EVERY STATE needs such a law!
...and the honest poll workers to make it happen. Just as long as names are processed within the state so that the same person does not appear in the rolls of more than one precinct. Another I would like to see is doing away with mass voter registration of any kind.
In fact, an individual must show up with said ID in hand to register, and just as any other license, it isn’t good for life. IOW maximum 5 years and you must re-register. Otherwise, voter rolls will be full of the dead, deceitful, and ACORN generated junk.
I guess they can't afford to be identified...
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