Tabella below has some comments on the NASS meeting today, where I was.  I’ll have more on DOJ AAG Tom Perez’s comments at NASS and help the NASS members decode some of his comments in a way that members of NASS can understand.  Stay tuned on that.  I appeared on a panel with a DNC representative after Perez.  You can watch the presentations here.

Perez starts about 2:26
I start about 3:15.

NASS Session on 2012 Election Preparations
State Room

At the link watch the NASS Conference live or taped.  Earlier today, a mix of Democratic and Republican Secretaries of State made impassioned pleas to Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Perez asserting that the state chief election officials do not have control over their counties in meeting the statutory required mailing deadlines under the MOVE Act.  The NASS group asserted that lawsuits against states are not effective and fail to get to the root of the problem or violation. 

In his statements, AAG Perez refused to accept the reality that states very often do not have direct control over local election officials in complying with the MOVE Act.  Instead, Perez pointed to the language of the statute, internal policy, and how these cases were handled in the past.  With the predictable tin ears and ignoring of chief election officials across the country, DOJ and Perez are heading toward another failure of MOVE Act enforcement in 2012.  Perez won’t be able to say NASS didn’t warn him.

The majority leaders of the state House and Senate have filed bills that could open doors for more people to have a valid photo identification card for voting under a law that was approved in last year’s legislative session.

One bill filed Thursday by Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, R-Colliverville, and House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, would authorize county election commissions to issue a free photo ID.

Full story here.

Bloomberg makes the case that early voting in a volatile race has it downsides.  For example:

Debates have been integral to the campaign this year, yet more than 447,000 Floridians cast ballots before the Jan. 26 debate in Tampa, the last before the state’s Jan. 31 primary. By the time the candidates took the stage that night in Jacksonville, 11 percent of Florida’s 4 million registered Republicans — and a higher percentage of actual voters — had already voted.

Link.  House Speaker Andy Tobin refuses to give in. 

No one knew that Republican House Speaker Andy Tobin had been drawing his own redistricting plan behind closed doors. And just as few would have predicted that Tobin would suddenly unveil his maps Friday and announce his intention to send Arizona voters to the ballot for an $8.3 million special election in May to replace the maps drawn by the IRC

According to the Star-Telegram, the plaintiffs are arguing that if a 63% majority Anglo district happens to elects a Democrat at any time, the white Democrats and minorities are protected under the Voting Rights Act from any change that might disrupt that incumbent.  Thus, under these facts, a Republican can never and will never be a candidate of the district’s choice because of the 37% minority population.  Sounds like the Democratic Party Protection Act for white Democrats. 

The state’s expert witness, John Alford of Rice University, was on the stand to defend the districts drawn by the Texas Legislature for the Texas House, Texas Senate and U.S. House.
During questioning by Davis’ attorney — who maintains that Davis’ Tarrant County-based District 10 was carved up to keep blacks and Hispanics from voting for a candidate they prefer — Alford said that it was Anglo voters who gave her the win over a Republican incumbent.

“The deciding factor there was not the degree of change in voting by minorities,” Alford said. “It was clear that the deciding factor of what caused that to be a victory was the much higher level of Anglo crossover. The district is a majority Anglo district … about a 63 percent majority Anglo district.”

Alford said in an interview that according to racial voting patterns, “Anglos who vote Democratic in Texas are considered crossover voters.” In Tarrant County, he said, about 80 percent of Anglos vote Republican.

“The big change in Wendy Davis’ election was that the Anglos crossed over. Because there were so many more Anglos, she was elected on the basis of the Anglo crossover,” he said.

the rest of the story here.

This article pointed out a study that found 75% of non-white voters in Mississippi voted against a measure to require photo identification before someone could vote.  However, that level of support is signficantly higher than normal support for the Republican Party nominee from Blacks in Mississippi.  The study failed to note that 95% of Blacks voted for the Democratic Party in 2008.  However, this article reports on that high support. 

Thus, the 25% of non-whites that supported photo ID is actually significantly higher than the 5% that voted for Republican nominee John McCain.

Full story at the link.

At the DesMoinesRegister.com, Gov. Terry Branstad called legislation requiring Iowans to show a photo ID to vote a “good idea” during his weekly press conference this morning.  Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz has proposed a voter ID law for consideration this year, and Republicans last year passed a similar bill through the House.

“I think it’s a good idea to protect the integrity of the voting process and prevent theft of personal identification,” said Branstad, a Republican. He added, “We have had efforts in past elections where people falsely vote in an area where they’re not eligible. I think it’s important. I do support requiring identification.”

Schultz announced his bill in a press conference last week, but no formal action has been taken on it in the Legislature. Democrats have generally opposed such measures, which they say address a nonexistent problem and are meant to stifle Democratic turnout. The Republican bill has stalled in the Democratic-led Senate.

Republicans, too, were initially cool to Schultz’s plan. House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said last week he’d rather see progress made on last year’s bill rather than starting over again on Schultz’s.

Senate Democrats may want to grab the olive branch offered by Secretary of State Schultz who revised the bill to meet some of the concerns voiced by the other party.  The Republicans are not so pleased with the changes or the revised plan.  The Democrats maintain only a two seat majority in the Iowa Senate.  If the Democrats lose their majority in the Iowa Senate in 2012, it is likely the resulting bill will not be so accomodating.

 A profile on Ed Blum at the Birmingham News.