The story out of Mississippi here and here is the voter ID constitutional amendment that Mississippi will soon send to the feds for approval – the evidence seems to point to Mississippi going to the Voting Section of the Department of Justice for review.  *Sigh* 

Sid Salter correctly believes that the fight will be long and expensive, even more so if the state continues on this course.  Because of the importance of the amendment, Mississippi officials have a duty to play the voter ID issue smart by allowing federal court review.  Instead, if the comments below are a true representation of their approval strategy, Mississippi is set to run off the cliff like South Carolina by allowing DOJ to delay and obstruct implementation of the law. 

Mississippi officials are confident the state’s new voter ID constitutional amendment will pass muster despite the Justice Department’s rejection of a similar South Carolina law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls. “The Supreme Court has ruled that voter ID is constitutional and we believe that Mississippi’s plan for implementing voter ID will be constitutional as well,” Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, said Saturday.

If Mississippi wants to overcome the political opposition of the Holder DOJ, the state needs to be patient and smart by going to Court and request expedited review if they have any hope of having the law in place prior to the 2012 election.  Even then, it may be too late because DOJ will try to stall the litigation until after the election cycle. 

Mississippi should rationally make its case and allow the DOJ to defend why they are contradicting the Supreme Court by requiring evidence of voter impersonation fraud, and finding speculative burdens on voters that the highest Court dismissed as non-existent and non-discriminatory. 

Let DOJ defend why they continue to make the leap in logic that simply because some registered voters might need to obtain a free ID, then these voters will not be able to cast a ballot.  Many courts have already thrown out that leap of logic as voter ID opponents fruitlessly look for plaintiffs.  DOJ will not be able to hide behind their internal secret memorandums and will have to explain why the increase in voter turnout in other photo ID states was simply ignored.