Out of Beaumont, Texas: The Beaumont BISD was patiently working with DOJ, but the Texas state court ruined it all… by interpreting the law and ruling.  In the letter
from the Department of Justice, Assistant Attorney General Thomas E.
Perez says it could have changed the outcome of the situation.

Had the state court reopened the candidate qualifying
period after the decision [that all trustee seats were up for election],
even for a short period of time, the incumbent trustees or other
residents of those districts would likely have qualified, thereby
providing the voters in these districts with the opportunity to
participate in the electoral process and the ability to elect their
candidates of choice. This eventuality could have significantly
mitigated, and potentially eliminated, the retrogressive effect of the
changes.

Well, there you have it. DoJ uses Section 5 against the third branch, the judiciary.  If only the four justices on the state court (the 9th Court of Appeals) had ruled a certain way, the right way, on whether to reopen a filing deadline, this action would not have been necessary.  But the court didn’t consult with Tom Perez.  Surely we know that the four judges from Texas hearing all the facts and applying the law had deep discriminatory reasons for their ruling.  Of course, citizens have a higher federal civil right to vote for candidates even if they may may not have properly qualified or took timely steps to run as a candidate under local or state law.

In North Carolina, citizens aren’t leaving the field of debate to politicians and activists.  The 75% are stepping up.

As the state House
begins moving toward a voter ID bill, a public hearing Wednesday brought
out strong support for the measure, which requires voters to produce a
government-approved photograph at voting places.

Unlike a previous
hearing which brought out numerous critics of the proposal, dozens of
speakers this time argued that voter fraud was more widespread than
surveys have suggested, and that requiring photos would increase public
confidence in the electoral process.

A Wake County grand jury is asking the
district attorney to determine if a supporter of former Gov. Bev Perdue
violated state campaign finance laws.

The grand jury’s report said there was probable cause to believe
Charles Michael Fulenwider of Morganton broke the law by funneling money
through a Chapel Hill firm to pay for someone on Perdue’s staff during
the 2008 gubernatorial campaign.   Link.

A measure written by a local assemblywoman that would give military
personnel overseas more voting rights has cleared its first hurdle.  Assembly
Bill 269 would allow the ballots of military service members and other
Californians overseas to be counted up to three days after Election Day,
so long as the ballots are postmarked by that day.  Link.

Politico reports that the federal agencies didn’t have much to say and only two Senators showed up.  However, Senator Cruz provides a defense of the First Amendment despite his personal experience. 

Cruz — the only other senator at the hearing — repeatedly raised questions of possible First Amendment violations.

“In my view, whenever congress acts in the area of political speech,
the touchstone of everything we do should be the First Amendment of the
Constitution,” he said.

“I would point out that in saying this I’m not unfamiliar with the
downsides,” he added. “In Texas I just came off of a campaign, where I
was outspent 3 to 1, and let me just say those who chose to put
resources into launching attacks against me had a First Amendment right
to do so. And God bless them for speaking out and being involved in
politics.”

IVN reports: Since the beginning of the year, 30 states have introduced voter ID proposals. Of the 30 proposals,
12 states wish to introduce new voter ID laws: Illinois, Iowa,
Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New
York, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Wyoming.  Arkansas now joins the list of seven states pushing for stricter
voter ID laws, accompanied by Connecticut, Missouri, Montana, North
Dakota, Oklahoma, and Virginia.

A must read article about Sen. Rand Paul’s speech at Howard University, civil rights and Paul not being afraid to tackle racial issues, including the disservice of the civil rights groups to the communities they purportedly represent:

Paul tackled some 30 minutes of tough questioning ranging from Malcolm X to the Environmental Protection Agency. When asked by a former Obama intern how he felt about voter ID laws, Paul said he didn’t think it was a burden for people to show a driver’s license to maintain the integrity of the polls, but didn’t approve of 100-page literacy tests Democrats forced blacks to take during reconstruction to suppress their vote.

Ouch.  And more:

Paul asked a hushed audience:

“How did the party that elected the first black US Senator, the party that elected the first 20 African-American congressmen become a party that now loses 95% of the black vote?”

The Bismark Tribune: North Dakota lawmakers decided Monday to clamp down on the type of
petition fraud that invalidated two initiated measures last fall.  Signing someone else’s name to a petition could be a felony under a bill approved by the Senate.  “The
intent is to relay the importance of our election process and that we
are serious about voter and election fraud,” said Sen. Donald Schaible,
R-Mott.  Last fall, two initiated measures failed to make the
ballot after it was revealed many of the signatures on the petitions
were fraudulent.

“Charges of election fraud are being leveled in two metro east communities. St. Clair County Clerk Bob Delaney says his office is holding on to nearly 400 absentee ballots and applications for absentee ballots for this municipal election that he believes are fraudulent.

“Two weeks ago we started getting calls from people who’d seen the public posting of the names of those who’d requested absentee ballots and they were saying that’s not me.”

Full story here.