Posted on 07/05/2011 1:11:38 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON — Sixteen Democratic senators want the Justice Department to look into whether voting rights are being jeopardized in Texas and other states that require photo identification in order for people to vote.
The lawmakers wrote Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday to express concern that millions of voters do not have a government-issued ID - particularly older people, racial minorities, low-income voters and students.
The senators say the photo ID requirements have the potential to block millions of eligible people from exercising their right to vote.
Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said the department is monitoring, as it routinely does, this type of legislative activity in the states.
"We urge you to protect the voting rights of Americans by using the full power of the Department of Justice to review these voter identification laws and scrutinize their implementation," the senators said in the letter to the attorney general.
The 16 senators include.......
"Many of these laws effectively disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters," Bennet said in a statement.
The senators are seeking vigorous enforcement of the Voting Rights Act and federal civil rights law, which bars different standards from being applied to individuals within a jurisdiction. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act gives the Justice Department significant authority to review laws before they are implemented in states with a history of discriminatory voting practices. Three states subject to Section 5 - Georgia, Texas and South Carolina - require a photo ID in order to vote. Texas and South Carolina enacted their laws last month.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
“Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act gives the Justice Department significant authority to review laws before they are implemented in states with a history of discriminatory voting practices.”
This is a breathtaking usurpation of our Constitution. An agency of the national government gets to review State Law before implementation?
Not only is there no such power, but our Framers considered and rejected Congressional veto of State Laws. IOW, the States considered granting this power to the national government and refused to do so after long debate.
The 1964 “Voting Rights Act” was to have expired but the Left keeps resuscitating it and the Republicans won’t stand up to them!
Yes! Yes!
But those millions of people that do not have ID have plenty of time and nothing but themselves to prevent them from getting ID’s
Their fault not the laws...........
“thought voting versions were being issued for free.”
I’m not sure about the other states, but GA will issue them for free and that is one reason the GA law should hold up in the courts.. Unfortunately, for the democrats, one must be a LEGAL citizen to vote and this does leave out the tens of thousands of ILLEGALS who reside in GA. THIS is what’s torquing off the whiners who wrote the letter.
Now you're blaming the "victims." Usual conservative, knee-jerk reaction. /S
what needs to be done, is be finger printed, and have the the machine scan your prints and turn on only if you have not voted...this will keep the dead people from voting...
How do you get registered to vote without ID?
Other than this letter being totally ridiculous, every student ID I've seen has their picture on it.
As the article mentions, we just passed a Voter ID law here in South Carolina. (Governor Nikki Halley - YES!!)
I've been working the polls for years. 95% of voters are already using their driver's license for ID. SC has a state ID that looks like a driver's license and some voters use that as well.
When the ID law was being debated, the RATS said, "These people have no money to pay for an ID!" So the law has a provision that those folks can get a taxpayer funded (the RATS consider that "free") state ID. Then the RATS said, "These are poor people. How will they get to the DMV to get their free ID?"
RATS are mentally ill.
Many native Georgia residents tell me that it's a state constitutional requirement.
The "constitutional requirement" story is a myth according to this lengthy but interesting explanation of why only Texas has more counties than Georgia. According to the history, not only is the "constitutional requirement" a myth, but "convenience of the people" is generally a myth, too. Georgia has so many counties because of politics and political spoils.
Georgia had only 89 counties in 1835. By the 1870s, there were 137. Splitting an existing county or counties to create a new county merely required legislative vote in those days. According to the article I linked above, the creation of new counties was often for political spoil:
In some cases, influential legislators from a “lesser city” were able to divide their county in two, making their hometown a prestigious new county seat. New counties also meant a slew of new jobs, not just for sheriffs, deputies, judges and clerks, but jobs for constructing new government buildings, running telegraph stations and the like. County seats also attracted railroads, which meant hotels and taverns and shops. Since Georgia was largely rural at the time, a new county could also bring things like police protection and court services much closer to home.
Sometimes petty squabbles were involved: when the voters of Clarke County voted to move the county seat from Watkinsville to Athens, miffed Watkinsville residents created Oconee County so that their city would remain important.
It wasn't until 1877 that the Georgia Constitution froze the number of counties at 137. Then there were a couple of constitutional amendments to increase the number of counties. Finally, during the Depression, almost-bankrupt Milton County and bankrupt Campbell County voted to merge with Fulton County.
But I digress, and Georgia has 159 counties, second only to Texas's 254.
Perhaps Georgia has as many counties as it does perhaps more because of a system of political spoils than to make things convenient for farmers and other Georgia residents.
I’m sure Holder will take a very close look at this. Black Panthers standing outside a polling booth with baseball bats: Holder says no problem, nothing to see here, move along. Requiring a simple photo i.d. to vote: discrimination! Let’s sue another state like we did Arizona!
By the way anyone on food stamps / welfare / unemployment assistance at any time during the 12 months before the date of an election should be barred from voting in the first place, period. Conflict of interest.
Pass a constitutional amendment allowing poll taxes. $50 to vote in any federal election, and tie it to the consumer price index. The Rats will still pack buses of their welfare constituents to take them to the polls, but at least it will cost the DNC a ton of “street money” that they would have otherwise used on their candidate.
EJ will make somebody a good houseboy one day.
He’s a parasite.
When the Left owns it all, E.J. will no longer be useful.
Because Holder told us, (paraphrasing) "Historically, you have not been oppressed, so I will not protect you like I do my people."
Your summary is quite probably so. In any case, getting a voter ID if you don’t have a DL is trivial and free, and the only reason for all the objections is voter fraud.
On a related note, all this extended voting / easy absentee voting needs to come to an end as well. It drives up election costs (something few governments can afford) and increases the opportunities for shenanigans.
Here you go Georgia Girl 2. We knew it was coming.
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