U.S. Justice Department suit aims to stop NC voter ID law

[Coyotl]

U.S. Justice Department suit aims to stop NC voter ID law

Published: September 29, 2013
By Steve Harrison and Anne Blythe — http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/09/29/3241293/us-justice-department-suit-aims.html

The U.S. Department of Justice will file a lawsuit Monday to stop North Carolina’s new voter ID law, which critics have said is the most sweeping law of its kind, according to a person briefed on the department’s plans.

Attorney General Eric Holder, who has said he will fight state voting laws that he sees as discriminatory, will announce the lawsuit at noon Monday, along with the three U.S. attorneys from the state.

Critics said the law will disenfranchise African-American and elderly voters, while the Republican-led General Assembly in Raleigh said the law will protect the state’s voters from potential fraud. ............

[Gothmog]

1. Good News

The DOJ lawsuit in Texas has forced the Texas DPS to start adopting some reasonable policies that had been rejected by the Texas republicans. Back in 2011 when SB 14 (the Texas voter id law) was being debated, Texas Democrats proposed a large number of amendments to lessen the nasty effects of SB14. The GOP rejected these amendments. At the town halls held by Congressman Green, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety was asked if hours of offices could be extended and if mobile stations could be used to help register voters in rural areas. The DPS spokesperson told Congressman Green and the voters attending these town halls that the DPS did not have the funding and would not be engaging in these efforts. Now that the Department of Justice is suing on voter id and have raised the fact that the law has problems that could have been fixed with these amendments, Greg Abbott and the State of Texas want to get reasonable. The DPS is now extending the hours of its offices and will now be using mobile stations.

I am not the only person who finds this change of heart to be cynical http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20130925-editorial-shakedown-for-silly-voter-id-law.ece

The state’s new photo ID requirement for voters was enacted in 2011, in one of the Legislature’s nastiest, most politically divisive debates in years. To borrow a poker term, the GOP leadership was all-in to adopt what became the most stringent set of voter ID rules in the nation. The bill passed despite a lack of evidence to back up claims of rampant election-day voter impersonation.
Republicans essentially trashed the tried-and-true method of honoring county-issued voter registration cards at the polls, then applauded themselves for repulsing an assault on the ballot box.

Here’s one sad irony: In muscling through their bill, Republicans rejected amendments from Democrats that would have mandated extended office hours and other steps similar to those announced recently to make the new voter IDs easier to get.

So why are Republican leaders in Austin just now recognizing that the photo ID law might work an unfair hardship on poor people and hourly workers, some of whom face a 250-mile round trip to reach a driver’s license office?

Could it be that top agency officials saw the fine print of a lawsuit Attorney General Eric Holder filed last month to try to block the voter ID law? Holder specifically cited the defeated amendments aimed at overcoming inconveniences and transportation costs associated with getting the new voter ID.

[Coyotl]

2. Republican political desperation is very evident in their no-holds-barred assualt on voting n/t

[Gothmog]

3. The GOP is relying on a white only voter model

The GOP has given up on attracting non-whites to support their candidates. The only way that a white only voter model works is if you can suppress non-white votes.

[Gothmog]

4. I read the petition and there are some interesting differences between Texas and North Carolina laws

I know a great deal about the Texas voter id law and remember that some posters from North Carolina were upset that the DOJ filed against Texas first. After reading the petition, I can see why Texas was first. You can read the petition here http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/dojnclawsuit.pdf I have read the section dealing with voter ID and found that the North Carolina law as described in the DOJ petition is actually more liberal than the Texas voter id law (SB 14) in a number of key aspects. For example, the North Carolina law allows Veteran’s cards and indian tribe identifications to be used:

………(5) a Veteran’s identification card issued by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs; (6) a tribal enrollment card issued by a federally- or State-recognized tribe;

The Texas voter ID law does not allow for these forms of identification but does provided that conceal carry permits are acceptable.

Next, the North Carolina law exempts persons over 70 from having identifications that is current on the voter’s 70th birthday:

Voters who are 70 years of age and older are exempted from the requirement that the photo identification be unexpired; however, the photo identification they present must have been unexpired on the voter’s 70th birthday.

In Texas, the free id, i.e., the Election Identification Certificate, issued to a voter who is 70 years or older does not expire while EICs issued to other voters do expire.

Third, voters with disabilities are treated differently. In North Carolina is a voter qualifies for curbside assistance, then that voter can present forms of identification that are acceptable under the Help America Vote Act which includes ultility bills and other correspondence:

(3) registered voters who qualify to cast a ballot curbside because of age or physical disability. The voters in at least the last category must show one of the forms of identification approved by the HAVA for first-time voters who register by mail

In, Texas only voters who are more than 50% disabled according to the Social Security Administration or the Veteran’s Administration and who submit paper documenting such disability to the county voter registrar can meet the disability exemption.

Finally, under the North Carolina law, the counties are required to provide free birth certificates to any voter who requests a birth certificate in order to get the free identification from the state:

Further, although HB 589 requires a North Carolina register of deeds to issue without charge a certified copy of a birth certificate or marriage license to any registered voter who declares that he or she needs the document to obtain a photo identification in order to vote, it does not address any fees that will be imposed on voters who will have to obtain the requisite underlying documentation from out-of-state agencies.

In Texas there is no provision for free birth certificates.

The North Carolina law is actually a more liberal law compared to the Texas law and the DOJ still sued. To me, this means that Texas may have a harder time justifying SB14 given that the Texas voter id law is far stricter than the North Carolina law in many respects. The fact that the DOJ has a court ruling that the Texas act adversely affects the voting rights of minorities combined with the fact that the Texas voter id law is a much stricter law explains why the DOJ filed suit in Texas first.