Category Archives: Uncategorized

NC Democrats think the Voting Rights Act protects their partisan needs


Politico notes that “the redistricting wars are about to hit North Carolina, and Republicans in the Tar Heel State are considering a controversial but well-worn strategy that has worked elsewhere in the South: Create a new majority-minority district while destroying other districts occupied by white Democrats.”  “The state’s Republicans — who are in control of the General Assembly for the first time since Reconstruction — are basically planning to blow up the current congressional map and give North Carolina a third district that has a large enough minority population to elect another African-American member of Congress. But in doing so, they’ll be drawing new lines that would secure the political safety and expand the ranks of the state’s congressional Republicans.”

The Obama DOJ needs to remember that the Voting Rights Act was designed to protect minority communities and not the partisan electoral needs of white Democrats who wish to retain power despite being badly beaten at the polls.  The addition of new majority minority seats in the North Carolina state legislature and U.S. Congress may have the Democrats complaining loudly but such a move is certainly not retrogressive toward minority voters.  As DOJ will likely interpret the law on retrogression with partisan effect, North Carolina should simply go straight to court.  Regardless, these plans end up being litigated in court for some reason. 

For decades, North Carolina Democrats unnaturally retained their political power by redistricting on race and actually minimizing the number of majority minority seats, not reflecting the large black population.  Now North Carolina Republicans finally have the opportunity to reshape the lines of North Carolina to reflect the electoral realities of the state and empower both newly resurgent Republicans and signficiant minority populations. 

Missouri House endorses constitutional amendment on Voter ID

In Missouri, media reports indicate ..

The Missouri House endorsed a proposed constitutional amendment
yesterday that is designed to help resurrect a requirement that voters
show government-issued photo identification to cast ballots.

Rep. Stanley Cox, who is sponsoring the constitutional amendment in
the House, said requiring a photo ID to vote would help to protect
Missouri elections by combatting voter fraud. He said while lawmakers
should be looking for ways to make it easier to vote, it also is
important to make it harder for people to cheat at the polls.

“If you cheat, you water down our votes,” said Cox, R-Sedalia. “You deny us the right to vote.”

The proposed constitutional amendment would
appear on a 2012 ballot.

Will the DOJ sue to force Florida to seek federal approval for felon rules?

From the press release:

“The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), NAACP, Florida State Conference of the NAACP, and the Advancement Project, called upon the United States Department of Justice to require the State of Florida to submit for review its recent changes to rules governing the restoration of voting rights to persons with felony convictions.


The Florida Executive Clemency Board recently sought to adopt changes that would require a person convicted of a non-violent felony to wait five years after completing a sentence before that citizen can even apply for a restoration of her voting rights.  Moreover, under the proposed new rule, the clock automatically resets if an individual is arrested during this period, even if no charges are ultimately filed.”

The groups are seeking Florida to submit the rules under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.  If Florida resists, this could make for an interesting case about the constitutional scope of the Voting Rights Act.