In Georgia, the ink is not yet dry on the preclearance letter approving newly redistricted maps and the Democrats, specifically the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, intends to fight the new districts with a lawsuit under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

In response, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens says, he’ll vigorously defend Georgia’s redistricting maps in court if plans to challenge them come through.

“I would suggest to you, at the point that the state Democratic party is taking a more extreme position than the Obama Justice Department, that doesn’t bode well for the state Democratic party down below,” Olens says. “The legal standard is whether you assure one man, one vote, whether you make sure there’s no retrogression, whether you make sure there are communities of interest. If more people vote Republican, that’s their right.”

Learn more about the DOJ lawyer on the SC Voter ID case, Eric Holder’s puppy dog at the New York Times, and the weak points of the SC Voter ID objection, here at Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com.

The Justice Department’s decision on the South Carolina law comes after Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. signaled a tough stance on the new laws in a speech at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Libary and Museum in Austin, Tex., which honors the president who shepherded the 1965 Voting Rights Act into law.

Holder expressed concern about the new laws in the Dec. 13 address, saying: “Are we willing to allow this era – our era – to be remembered as the age when our nation’s proud tradition of expanding the franchise ended?’’

More at the link

2011 Legislative wrap-up @ the link

Clearly the biggest elections issue in state legislatures in 2011 was voter ID, but there were a handful of other notable trends, even if they largely slipped under the radar of the national media.

Voter ID:  A total of 34 states considered voter ID legislation this year. Four states enacted new laws – Kansas, Mississippi (a citizen initiative, rather than a bill) Rhode Island and Wisconsin. Another four passed laws to make existing voter ID laws stricter – Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

Voter ID bills in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio remain pending in 2011 and will carry over into 2012 if they do not receive a failing vote before the end of the year. Bills in Alaska, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Nebraska and New York will also carry over into the 2012 legislative session.

The law is likely to be in effect on April 24, 2012 during primary elections.

The full story at the link

Townhall opinion piece at the link.

Philadelphi Inquirer: Black Panther voter-intimidation debacle still gnaws at nation’s values.

“Yet the Black Panther case was about much more than two racist jokers strutting in front of the Guild House. It is about what sort of nation we want to be.

The most tragic part of the Panther dismissal is how it erodes the precious principle of equal protection. No part of our Constitution was purchased with more blood and treasure than the Civil War Amendments – the 13th, 14th and 15th.

The 15th Amendment secures the right to vote free from racial discrimination and is the basis of the Voting Rights Act, under which the Panthers were sued. These amendments stand for the principle that the law treats everyone equally, regardless of race. People continued to die for this precious idea in places like Selma and Philadelphia, Miss., even a century after the Civil War ended.”

Politico story at the link.

Pennsylvania Democrats already had a daunting road back to the majority within their own House delegation. Now that Republicans have unveiled their redistricting map, that road is close to a dead end.

The plan, released Tuesday by the GOP-controlled Legislature and expected to be passed largely in its current form, significantly shores up all of the state’s most endangered GOP House members, from the Philadelphia suburbs to the shore of Lake Erie. It assures that Democrats will bear the brunt of the state losing a congressional district by throwing Reps. Jason Altmire and Mark Critz into the same western Pennsylvania seat. In a final insult, it rips the bluest areas out of freshman Rep. Lou Barletta’s northeast Pennsylvania district, putting the Democrats’ top target further out of reach. Former Democratic Rep. Chris Carney, who had wanted to run against Barletta, lives outside the new district.

The Washington Times reports:

In Ohio, a redistricting plan recently approved by state lawmakers is pitting longtime incumbents against each other, turning up the heat in the politically divided Buckeye State’s 2012 election cycle.

….Some of the 16 districts they created will match well-known incumbents against each other, making for a game of congressional musical chairs and must-watch races in several districts next year.

Rep. Betty Sutton, a Democrat and former labor lawyer from Copley Township, for example, has been redrawn into the district of Rep. James B. Renacci, a Republican financial consultant from Wadsworth.

“The Sutton-Renacci race is going to be the war,” predicted David Wasserman, the Cook Political Report’s redistricting specialist. “I think it’s the next big labor fight in Ohio, a former labor lawyer running against the multimillionaire Republican.

and: Still, many political observers contend that the overall map favors the GOP.

“Ohio is a major disappointment for the Democrats,” Mr. Wasserman said. “They thought there would be a way by petition to block the map and force the issue to court. Instead, Democrats were unable to collect the required petition signatures and Republicans now have a map that they like. What has happened here fits a pattern consistent with many states in the country.”

In a state Mr. Obama carried in 2008, Republicans are poised to grab a 12-4 advantage in the U.S. House delegation next year.

Ohio Republicans called the map a bipartisan deal.

Eric Shawn reports at Foxnewsinsider.com with the latest on the Indiana fake signature petition scandal.

Perhaps the most meaningful conversations though were with the voters who told us that their names and signatures were faked and that they never signed the petitions.

Charity Rorie, a mother of four, sat at her kitchen table with the petitions and told us that her name and signature, and those of her husband, were forgeries. She told us how disturbing it was to see the evidence on the Obama petition. She said that not only did she never sign the petition, but was alarmed that their personal information, such as birthdays and address, were listed.

Vote fraud deniers can speak with Charity Rorie and the other victims whose names and personal information as registered voters were fraudulently and wrongfully added to a petition placing Obama on the ballot. Hmmm. While not in the act of casting a ballot, this would be an example of voter impersonation.