More than 50 opponents of a bill that would require voters to show identification at the polls crowded a podium Tuesday in the Capitol Rotunda in a final effort to urge senators to oppose the bill, but its supporters aren’t backing down.  Full link

I’ve appeared on Earl Ofari Hutchinson’s radio show before (and am happy to do so again).  He has this piece on efforts to overturn Section 5.  While most of the piece is old news, there are a few points to note.  First, the effort to overturn Section 5 is hardly a GOP effort.  In many ways, Republicans very much oppose the effort because they believe (mistakenly) that control of Congress is dependant on Section 5’s preservation.  The Republicans in Congress who believe that are falling, but nevertheless, it is inaccurate to say this is a GOP effort.  Conservative effort, constitutionalist effort?  Yes, but nominally GOP.

Secondly, Hutchinson says, “The GOP has already pecked at eroding the Act with the rash of photo identifications laws that the GOP governors and GOP controlled state legislatures have enacted. They have one aim, and that’s to discourage and damp down the number of minority and poor voters that overwhelmingly vote Democratic.”

This is a myth.  That isn’t the purpose of Voter ID.

But Hutchinson’s biggest error is to underestimate the scope of the effort to strike down Section 5.  While it isn’t necessarily a “GOP effort,” it is an extensive effort that goes well beyond Shelby County, AL.  States are challenging, and ready to challenge Section 5 as outdated.  So are more local jurisdictions. 

Not long ago we heard the favorite talking point that Voter ID was “a solution in search of a problem.”

Reports from Wisconsin are uniform: voter ID in Wisconsin appears to be a solution without a problem.

Voter ID law causes no issues in local primary elections

Voter ID law off to smooth start in Wisconsin

Voter ID law takes effect with no major problems

Voters flash photo ID at the polls; no issues reported in first test of law

Minimal voter ID problems reported in southeast Wisconsin

Pollworkers Report Few Voter ID Issues

First test of photo voter ID goes smoothly

GAB chief: first Wisconsin election with voter ID ‘went reasonably well’

And from Wisconsin Public Radio: South Side Residents Have Few Problems With Voter ID

As I’ve written before, Voter ID is not an issue that merits the energy and money that the civil rights group have invested.  It is popular.  And in Wisconsin, it seems to work, so far.  Opposition to Voter ID seems a poor allocation of resources by groups that purport to have limited funding.  In Wisconsin, they have overplayed their hand.

 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Over at another election law website, the below press release announcing a future Voter ID challenge to Wisconsin Voter ID was posted.  Then, it vanished.  Maybe something changed – like a mistaken legal theory, or a smooth running election.  Who knows.  The posting was taken down. Did the Advancement Project ask for it to be removed, and that explains the vanishing act?  Thus, we post the disappearing announcement in full:

WISCONSIN SUED OVER RACIALLY DISCRIMINATORY VOTER LAW

FIRST SUIT TO SPECIFICALLY CHARGE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

78 PERCENT OF YOUNG BLACK MEN COULD BE BARRED FROM THE POLLS

Milwaukee, WI – Advancement Project, joined by the League of Young Voters and the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, will file the first lawsuit based on a claim of racial discrimination against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and members of the Government Accountability Board charging that a newly enacted restrictive voter identification law specifically discriminates against African American and Latino voters.

The lawsuit, to be filed Thursday February 23, challenges Wisconsin Act 23 under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits the institution of any electoral procedures that deny or abridge the rights of citizens to vote on account of race or color.

“This law is a part of the largest legislative effort to turn back the clock on voting rights in our nation in over a century and shows how essential the Voting Rights Act is to allow all Americans their right to vote,” states Advancement Project co director Judith Browne Dianis, one of the nation’s leading civil rights litigators. “If this bill is allowed to stand it will undermine the basic fabric of our nation’s democracy.”

Studies in Wisconsin have confirmed that racial minorities, especially African American and Latino voters, are far less likely to have a Wisconsin-issued ID, finding that roughly half of the state’s African Americans and Latinos lack a valid driver’s license. Specifically, a 2005 study determined that 55% of Black males and 46% of Hispanic males – as compared with only 16% of white males – lack a driver’s license. Among females, 49% of African Americans and 59% of Latinas lacked a driver’s license as compared to 17% of Whites.

When age and race are considered together, the disparities become far more pronounced: an astounding 78% of African-American males (as compared with 36% of White males) aged 18-24 lack a driver’s license, and 66% of African-American females (as compared with 25% of White females) aged 18-24 lack a driver’s license. The study also found a disparate impact on Latino voters: 57% of young Latino males age 18-24 lack a driver’s license, as compared to 36% of White males age 18-24.

One of the lead plaintiffs is Bettye Jones, 77, who was born at home in Tennessee and had no birth certificate filed of her birth. She has voted in every election since 1956 and advocated as a civil rights activist for the Voting Rights Act. Despite being a registered voter, and having a valid and current ID from another state, she will not be allowed to vote. She has tried in vain to get a voter ID and will be disenfranchised in April’s primary elections as a result.

Wisconsin’s law, the strictest voter identification law in the nation, requires citizens to present limited forms of current, government-issued photo identification before receiving a ballot. Commonly held forms of identification like state or federal employee IDs, veterans’ cards, most college and university identification cards, and out-of-state or expired driver’s licenses are not allowed.

UPDATE:  The reason for the vanishing act is described here.

The Nashua Telegraph reports on the latest attempt to satisfy the “provisional ballot” phobia of voter ID opponents and some election officials.  The Senate bill allows everyone, even those without the required proof of identity, to still vote a regular ballot by simply signing an affidavit of identity. While the handling of provisional ballots may add extra duties to election officials, if the voter turns out to have improperly voted, there is no way to take back a regular vote already illegally cast on the voting machines and counted. This process could disenfranchise properly cast legal votes.  The most ridiculous foot-dragging in the proposal is the requirement of four full years of implementation (until 2016) to simply add one more piece of paper to the process.
    
The bill would give local and state election workers until the 2016
election to prepare. Those who did not have an ID at the polls would
still be allowed to vote and would have to fill out an affidavit
attesting to their identity under penalty of perjury.

..The sticking point had been the insistence from House leaders that those
without the proper papers be designated as ‘’provisional’’ voters whose
ballots would not be counted unless they showed back up at city or town
hall with proof of their identity.

Here is a video of Pulitzer Prize nominated Hans von Spakovsky appearing on Fox discussing illegal aliens being given the right to vote in Connecticut.  An eye opening report on the efforts of some to give illegals the right to vote.

 NBC4

No thanks to that vigorous NVRA Section 8 enforcement of the Department of Justice.   

American Thinker: “What’s also needed is for citizens to monitor voting stations — it’s time for the Tea Party to saddle up and follow Catherine Engelbrecht of True the Vote. Catherine delivered a terrific speech (video) at the most recent Restoration Weekend of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, with John Fund making powerful points in his introductory remarks. . . . Winston Churchill once observed that Americans will always do the right thing, but only after they’ve exhausted all the alternatives. But Churchill’s bromide breaks down when it comes to our election systems, where so-called ‘experts’ all stand around debating about how many teeth horses have when there’s a perfectly docile nag at hand for them to examine. Our ‘experts’ will do anything but look into the horse’s mouth.”

The Nebraska Tea Party was at the capitol supporting the (photo ID) measure.

“We
believe that anytime there’s even a possibility of a voter fraud, where
you have people voting that are not who they say the are, they
disenfranchise those that have a legal right to participate in voting,”
said Mark Gill, NE Tea Party Patriots.  While several other groups, including the League of Women Voters of Nebraska, showed opposition to the bill.

“We’re
talking longer lines at the polling places and many more, many more
provisional ballots, we’re talking needless government regulations when
needless government regulations are in general very unpopular,” said
Linda Duckworth, League of Women Voters of Nebraska.

..The bill is expected to be heard before committee on Friday.

full story at link