“DOJ’s case distorts the effect of voter-ID laws and misinterprets the Voting Rights Act.”

National Review link:

In reading the Division’s complaint, I was reminded of the opening con in the 1973 movie The Sting, because the complaint is filled with the same type of misdirection intended to distract the audience. For example, it outlines the different percentages of black, Hispanic, and white populations in Texas. But it first uses total population, which includes lots of people who aren’t eligible to vote. It then lists voting-age population percentages, which is also a largely useless figure because of the significant number of Hispanics who are not citizens and African Americans who are convicted felons, and, therefore, not eligible to vote. It finally gives the percentages by voting-age members of the franchise, after having confused this issue with information not relevant to the number of individuals affected by a voter-ID law. (This is compounded by its use of surname-analysis to identify Hispanics, a notoriously inaccurate analysis tool.)

The complaint lists the poverty levels, income data, and car-ownership rates of blacks and Hispanics in comparison with whites. It makes a big deal out of the claim that Hispanics and blacks experience poverty at higher rates than whites, but this is completely irrelevant to the voting discrimination claim in the complaint. Being poor is not a protected class under the Voting Rights Act, and the total number of poor whites in the state is actually larger than the total number of poor Hispanics and blacks. Justice is trying to claim that if a voting law somehow affects poor people more than others (and it has no evidence that is true), because of racially disparate poverty rates, it is voting discrimination and therefore violates Section 2. Holder is trying to bootstrap an unprotected class of voters onto a class of voters protected under the law.

More at link.


Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner Criticizes Those Opposed to Federal Receivership Over State Elections

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner spoke yesterday and criticized those opposed to federal receivership of elections under the preclearance provisions as “the usual suspects.”  He vowed to “fix” the Voting Rights Act, presumably with a new Section 4 that pulls states like Texas, South Carolina, Arizona and Virginia back under federal control.

Here is the story.

Here is the video.

Texas voter ID law set for launch next week

CBS – DFW reports that unless a federal judge intervenes, the South Texas city of Edinburg could be the first to enforce a new voter ID law next week, and lawyers will likely use the special election to gather evidence to strengthen lawsuits to block it in the future. While the U.S. Justice Department and several civil rights groups have filed federal lawsuits to block the requirement that voters produce a state-issued photo ID, no one as of Friday had asked for a restraining order to stop enforcement of the law.

Joe Scarborough: Media hysteria over voter ID is “one-sided” and “blown way out of proportion”

Newsmax reports: Former Florida Rep. Joe Scarborough said Monday it was “outrageous” to suggest that voter photo identification laws are racist, claiming the issue has been covered in a “one-sided way” by the media.  “If you believe that somebody should have a photo ID to prove they are who they are, that somehow this governor of North Carolina is racist, or everybody in the state of Texas is racist —it’s outrageous,” Scarborough said, referring to efforts in those two states to imposed tougher voter ID laws. “This has been covered in such a one-sided way.”

…Scarborough suggested that some of the reports on how the restrictions would impact black and minority voters unfairly are blown way out of proportion.

Krauthammer: Opposition To Voter ID Laws “Nostalgia Of A Movement That’s Intellectually Bankrupt”

Quote from Fox News panel:  Look at this in context, it’s all happening on the anniversary on the March on Washington when the politics of it, the Jim Crow laws, the voter restrictions had a huge impact on black Americans. All of that changed and black American life has changed radically. Is the biggest issue in African-American life today the voter ID law? Is that going to alter the course of society black America, the inner cities, the terrible standard in the schools, the breakdown of the family and all of that? It’s nostalgia of a movement that’s intellectually bankrupt.

Rep. Steve Stockman: White House “aiding and abetting voter fraud”

The Blaze quotes Texas Representative Steve Stockman on the White House to use the Voting Rights Act to try to stop voter ID laws.
“This is a clear attempt by a lawless White House to aid and abet voter fraud,” said Stockman, in a statement.“Whether it is blocking the prosecution of voter intimidation in Philadelphia, illegally running guns to Mexican drug lords or assisting voter fraud in Texas Barack Obama has decided the rule of law takes a back seat to ‘Rules for Radicals,’” he added.

“I encourage the federal courts to do their constitutional duty and thwart this latest attempt to abuse presidential power to pervert free and clean elections,” Stockman continued. “The only people with an interest in preventing voter ID are people engaged in voter fraud.”