Politico has a lead story on challenges to Section 5 and what they characterize as an “siege on the Voting Rights Act.”  The modern reality is that the invasive and disproportionate nature of Section 5 with the concurrent lack of justification for such unequal treatment of only certain states in 2012 threatens equal application of the Voting Rights Act.  Those challenging Section 5 will be giving the Supreme Court the opportunity to mend the Voting Rights Act from the potentially current unconstitutional application of Section 5.  An excerpt from the article:   

The lawsuit brought by Shelby County was argued this month at the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and could be on a fast track
for the Supreme Court.

The provision “was constitutional in 1965 and 1975. And Alabama was,
shamefully, a big reason why,” said a brief filed in November by lawyers
for Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange. “But in part because of
Section 5, Alabama has changed, and the statute is no longer a necessary
and proper means of redressing constitutional injury.”

Strange’s brief argues that African Americans now serve in the state
Legislature at rates comparable to their percentage of the population
and that white and black voters have about the same registration rate.

Voting Rights Act critics also say the list of 16 states that get
special scrutiny is badly outdated. “It makes no sense [now] for the
State of Texas but not the State of Arkansas to be covered,” Blum said.

A series of cases filed recently by South Carolina and other states
seek approval for voter ID laws and other voting changes. However, some
of those cases also hint that the act’s pre-clearance provision could be
unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court Friday blocked Montana from enforcing state
restrictions on corporate political spending while the high court
considers arguments that those restrictions, enacted in the century-old
Montana Corrupt Practices Act, were nullified by the 2010 Citizens
United ruling.

WSJ article here.

McCrory brought the crowd to its feet several times when he promised he
would sign bills passed by the Republican legislature that Perdue had
vetoed: a voter ID bill; and a measure making the state a party to a
legal challenge to the national health care law.  Article here.

Depending on timing, the next Governor may not need to sign the voter ID bill as the North Carolina legislature may soon be able to override the veto itself with an additional vote coming from a legislator that has been deployed overseas and unable to vote.  This story has more of the details:

One of the most controversial vetoes awaiting
consideration is a bill requiring voters to show identification at the
polls. Republicans say it’s needed to prevent fraud, but Democrats say
it will disenfranchise voters. Lewis, the elections committee chairman,
said he doesn’t have the three-fifths majority needed for an override
this week.

The count is expected to change when
Republican state Rep. Ric Killian of Charlotte returns from his Army
reserve duties in Afghanistan in March or April. With Killian’s vote,
Republicans can override the vetoes of the voter ID bill and legislation
that promotes shale-gas drilling through a process known as fracking,
said House GOP leader Paul “Skip” Stam.

“Ouch.”

Just as important is how this flawed system highlights the need for
tougher voter ID laws. After all, if 2 million dead people are on the
active voter rolls, how difficult would it be to use those registrations
to illicitly tip a close election?

Law enforcement is now taking action in direct
response to an NBC2 investigation involving potential voter fraud. It
comes after we uncovered non U.S. citizens who were registered to vote.

The Collier County Sheriff’s office is
investigating two voters who admit they are not U.S. citizens, yet cast
ballots in numerous elections.  “This
is the first year we’ve actually had a complaint come in that
non-citizens were voting,” said Sergeant David White, who is assigned to
the county’s economic crimes unit.

White
got the names from the Supervisor of Elections office after the NBC2
Investigators examined jury excusal forms where residents said they
couldn’t serve because they were not U.S. citizens. We found nearly 100 of those names in the database of Florida registered voters. So far, Lee and Collier county election supervisors have removed 34 of those people from the voter rolls.

Link here.

 Washington Times.  “Did you know that according to a new Pew study, more than 1.8 million dead people are registered to vote? And that leading Democrats are fiercely opposing new laws that tighten voting requirements?

This tells us, just as we suspected, that the zombie population is becoming a major Democratic constituency.”

Deroy Murdock at the Washington Times  “Dead Will Rise on Election Day”:

” . . . As former federal prosecutor J. Christian Adams explains in his superb book Injustice, Section 8 of the Motor Voter Act “requires voter rolls to be kept free of dead and ineligible voters.” As Justice attorneys were poised to investigate eight states rife with nonliving and otherwise unqualified voters, top Obama appointees balked.

Dead voter.  Phony vote.  Criminal charges.  More details.

I will be on KSKY in the 6pm hour CST to talk about Eric Holder, millions of dead voters, and the DOJ undercover stings against state welfare agencies.

Laura Murphy, director of the Washington legislative office of the American Civil Liberties Union, and Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow and manager of the Civil Justice Reform Initiative in the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation, will speak at a National Press Club Newsmaker at 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, in the Zenger Room of the club in the National Press Building, 529 14th St., NW, Washington, D.C.  They will discuss the actual and potential impact of various U.S. state voter identification laws, many of which have only recently been passed and which require a photo ID for voters to be able to cast their ballots.  More information here.