opinion

link here.

The Acting Director of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has issued an internal memo formally requesting the Standards Board and Board of Advisors to not conduct official business. 

It might save a few pennies.  Next, the employees at the EAC will need to wear sweaters to work as the heat is turned off.  Fairly soon, there will be more life on Mars than at the EAC.



link here at the NASS website.

There are few people further apart on the issue of new voter photo ID requirements than Laura Murphy and Hans von Spakovsky.

She’s director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office. He’s with the Heritage Foundation and a former Justice Department official under George W. Bush

….The two did agree on one thing — that voter registration rolls are a mess that needs to be cleaned up. They both cited a Pew Center on the States report last week that there are more than 2 million dead people registered to vote, and about 24 million registrations that are invalid or inaccurate

full story at NPR.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach won a round Wednesday when the House tentatively agreed to move up the starting date for requiring proof of citizenship for those registering to vote. The proof-of-citizenship requirement was contained in the new voter ID law that the Legislature passed last year. However, it starts at the beginning of January

link here.

The N.C. State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) has charged one person with voter fraud in Candor in Montgomery County and charges against other voters may be coming. Erik Ray Jackson, 24, a previous candidate for Candor police chief, was charged on Friday with fraudulent voter registration and fraudulent voting in the 2011 municipal election

Link here.

According to a blog on AJC, quoting Columbia University law professor Nathaniel Persily.  Actually, the headline is a bit misleading as the Supreme Court is skeptical of the most instrusive part of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) which they have now repeatedly expressed constitutional concerns, not directed at the VRA as a whole.  The states are looking to mend, not end the Voting Right Act.

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.