Illegal double voting.  Story here.

Link.  But it now seems pretty likely that the South Carolina case will leapfrog over those others, and ask the Supreme Court to consider the constitutional question soon, in the same term that the court is likely to decide on the constitutionality of health care legislation, Texas’ new redistricting plans, and Arizona’s controversial immigration measure.

It is surprising that the Holder DOJ would risk the constitutionality of Section 5 over the bad facts of the South Carolina photo ID submission as the Court has already upheld the fundamentals of the concept years ago.  South Carolina’s voter ID law is much more forgiving than the Indiana law.  Apparently. DOJ is resting the future of Section 5 on the recently discovered discriminatory nature of photo ID laws. Why “recently?”

Well, just a few years ago, DOJ filed an amicus brief in the Crawford case informing the Supreme Court that photo ID requirements were not a severe burden on voters and did not have a discriminatory burden on the right to vote.  In 2011, DOJ has reversed itself abruptly despite the Court essentially agreeing with its major amicus arguments in 2007.  It resulted in the first objection to voter ID laws in 20 years.  The abuse of the preclearance process under Section 5 by the Civil Rights Division and the recent politicization of the issue by Holder will not sit well with the Court.

Here at link.  Santorum also calls Attorney General Holder “biased” in its review of voter ID laws.  Now, voter identification is quickly becoming a political issue with the presidential candidates.  It appears both camps are preparing for quite a year in the voter ID wars.

 Former OH Secretary of State at the Bigs.

To date, the voter outreach campaign on the photo ID law has included events hosted by election administrators in all 95 counties, more than a million pieces of literature being distributed and hundreds of public talks presented. Many of the presentations have been personally conducted by Hargett or Goins. The division has partnered with groups as diverse as AARP and the Tennessee Intercollegiate State Legislature to target specific groups that might be affected by the new law. Media tools ranging from billboards to social networks have been used to spread information about the law. 

Full story at the link

 Link.  “For all the talk of liberal “progressiveness,” the voter-ID wars are a ridiculously antique sideshow for a high-tech society that processes terabytes of data every hour. Besides offering soapbox time to obsolete organizations that require improbable racist conspiracies and theoretical civil-rights hobgoblins to keep their fundraising letters lively, the war against voter ID is fought to keep voter fraud alive.”

A state judge on Thursday adopted a redistricting plan that will establish slightly different boundaries for New Mexico’s three congressional districts and made the fewest changes among the proposed alternatives.

The plan adopted by State District Judge James Hall makes the fewest changes to the existing districts. It has the support of Gov. Susana Martinez, other Republicans and a group of Democrats that include Rep. Brian Egolf of Santa Fe.

“Gov. Martinez believes this plan is fair, as it appropriately equalizes population without advantaging one political party over the other,” Martinez spokesman Scott Darnell said in a statement

full story here.

Talk Radio New Service.

Full editorial here.  1.6 percent = the yawning chasm.

Interesting video entitled “An Act of Outrage” from the Dewhurst for Texas Republican primary campaign for the open Texas Senate seat. 

The video shows the passions unleashed when the chief law enforcement official in the country – Attorney General Holder – inserts himself into the preclearance process and makes photo ID election administratin requirements a national racial issue instead of simply following the law of the land and Department precedent established over 20 years.