When lawmakers convene for the 2013 Legislative Session, they’ll consider Secretary Ross Miller’s bill requiring a photo as proof of a Nevada voter’s identity. Photos would come from the Nevada DMV database. Those who lack an ID or license will take a picture at the polling place and sign an affidavit.
Sounds reasonable. Link to story.
The Voting Rigths Act and CNN.
A reader with a background in national security issues sends this link about the recently appointed new head of the NAACP-LDF, Sherrilyn Ifill. She wrote at the time:
“To call it terrorism is to deliberately press a million buttons that we know will trigger very particular, and perhaps inappropriate responses. It’s premature and irresponsible to deliberately push those buttons while the investigation into this tragedy is still in its very early stages. . . . Our most pressing concern right now should be honoring the dead and the living by safeguarding against a similar incident happening in the future. For now, that means taking a clear-eyed view of what happened and recognizing that Maj. Hasan did not commit these murders because he was Muslim — anymore that those who murder abortion doctors do it because they are Christian. He committed these murders because he’d had some kind of mental collapse that was undetected by those around him.”
Perhaps Ifill eventually amended her assessment, which I am happy to republish here if someone sends it, but I wasn’t able to find it.
This story is too much.
“I am sorry for the people that can’t let my past go,” she wrote on her public Facebook page.
I suppose some let the past go easier than others.
In addition to the conspiracy to commit fraud charges, Laughton was charged with slashing the tires of a neighbor’s car in 2006. The same year, Laughton reportedly admitted that she faked illness to gain an ambulance ride for herself and her now ex-wife, Lisa Laughton, also a Gate City selectman, from Weirs Beach back toward their home.
Laughton’s felony conviction stems from a 2007 incident, the Laconia Daily Sun reported Saturday, when Laughton and her ex-wife reportedly opened a credit card in a former neighbor’s name, using it to purchase electronics and pay bills.
Laughton was indicted on one felony count of conspiracy to commit fraudulent use of a credit card; one count of conspiracy to commit identity fraud; and one count of falsifying physical evidence, for disposing two computers, two cellphones and a printer after learning of the police investigation.
Next up on the agenda: “Kobach said the bigger issue that needs to be addressed was the counties where there are more registered voters than eligible voting-age population.”
“Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says fewer than expected registered voters cast provisional ballots in the Nov. 6 general election in response to the new state photo identification law… only 717 provisional ballots were cast because of photo ID issues.*”
More here.
*The AP story also states that the referenced 717 provisional ballots represent .6 percent of the 1.15 million votes cast. It’s unclear whether this mistake is attributable to Kobach or the AP reporter, but the correct figure is .06 percent.
Now, the push is on from the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union and other civic groups to permanently defeat the new law — which would require voters to show photo ID at the polls beginning next year. “We view it as a poll tax,” said Jerome Mondesire, the president of the state NAACP conference, who said the organization is gearing up to reverse the law. If the group loses, it will appeal as far as it can — perhaps even to the U.S. Supreme Court, he said. Never mind that the Supreme Court has already ruled that a provided-for-free Voter ID is not a poll tax. The anti-ID crowd remains undeterred.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:
CORRECTION, Nov. 21, 2012, 8:50 p.m. PT: Updated to clarify that 5% of provisional voters, not all voters, cast provisional ballots due to the new ID requirement. We email subscribers who don’t read the Blog missed the correction. (And still uncorrected is the bill number, which is 1337, not 1377.) But I can now update to clarify that, of the options previously posited, Project Vote’s sloppy reporting apparently was a simple mistake and not a deliberate misrepresentation on the part of Ms. Lee. At issue now is whether the correct numbers, evidencing a miniscule .015 percent of Virginia voters casting provisional ballots due to Voter ID requirements, will persuade anti-ID groups including Project Vote to reconsider their opposition.
When inaccurate information is reported, as in Project Vote’s November 21 “Bill Alert” email, the mistake ought to be acknowledged by the same method, so the correction reaches the same audience. An alert reader, however, not another “Alert” email, advised that the major misquote about Virginia’s Voter ID law, which I called attention to here on November 22, was in fact corrected by Project Vote late on the 21st via its Blog site:
Following up on the chuckles from partisan Arizona Democrats who say the “independent” redistricting plan worked as carefully designed, this letter to the editor of the Arizona Republic.