Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said he wants to include opponents of voter identification as state officials work to implement Initiative 27, the state constitutional amendment passed last week calling for Mississippians to present photo identification before voting.  “My goals would not be to have people on the sidelines of the field waiting for someone to fumble the ball,” he said. “Help me implement it.” 

The response?  Opponents say they’re willing to talk, but they’re also planning to seek federal rejection of the amendment, which 62 percent of voters favored Nov. 8. “We expect to be involved in opposing the law,” said Nancy Abudu, a lawyer with the Voting Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. Her arm of the ACLU has filed detailed letters questioning both the basis and the plans for implementing voter ID in South Carolina and Texas. The Justice Department is supposed to approve or reject both in December. Those are the first states that have sought preclearance for voter ID since President Barack Obama took office

No matter that Mississippi just passed a constitutional amendment (not merely a law), but it appears that the perceived grown-ups in Mississippi seem on the cusp of actually submitting the constitutional amendment to the Obama DOJ for a thumbs up or down. Expect a frustrating and humilitating experience. While the Supreme Court has upheld strict voter photo ID laws and the Clinton/Bush Departments have occasionally approved photo ID laws in other southern states such as Florida and Georgia, the Obama ideologues have yet to approve any voter ID law.  And they certainly do not seem willing to approve any similar voter ID laws in South Carolina or Texas.  Does Mississippi expect any better treatment? 

Memo to Mississippi Governor and Attorney General:  You are talking about an amendment to your state constitution and your state actually plans to submit the amendment to the rigged Section 5 process at the Justice Department.  Such an important addition to the state constitution should be reviewed by the federal courts who will certainly give Mississippi and the newly approved Voter ID amendment much greater deference than the Obama ideologues ever would.  It is one thing for a federal court to take such a dramatic step to stop a constitutional amendment, and do you really want some faceless bureaucrat telling Mississippi that this overwhelming-approved constitutional amendment doesn’t quite meet muster with their interpretation of discrimination.