James O’Keefe has changed the terms of the debate once again.  In New Hampshire this time, getting ballot after ballot for dead people.  New Hampshire has no voter ID law.  And the candidates are pouncing on Holder’s Voting Section over the development:

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich told The Daily Caller on Wednesday that a video showing conservative activists obtaining New Hampshire primary ballots in the names of dead people indicates that President Obama’s Justice Department isn’t doing enough to protect the integrity of the voting process.

The first election in Kansas under a new state law requiring voters to show photo identification appears to have gone smoothly.  Story at the link

A day after the Supreme Court heard arguments in a Texas redistricting battle, another redistricting case with potential national implications takes center stage, this time in Florida.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit will hear a challenge in a racially-charged lawsuit over an amendment to Florida’s constitution. Lawmakers have sued to try to block the amendment — passed by voter ballot in 2010 — which they say violates the U.S. Constitution because it strips the legislature of its right to regulate elections.

An African-American Democrat and a Hispanic Republican, joined by Florida’s House of Representatives, sued Florida in 2010, arguing that the so-called Fair Districts amendment dilutes the voting power of minorities. They also say it violates the Elections Clause of the Constitution, which gives state legislatures the power to regulate the time, place and manner of congressional elections.

full story here.

Kansas has a proof-of-citizenship requirement for people who register to vote in the state for the first time and for people who re-register in Kansas after living outside the state, but the rule isn’t scheduled to take effect until Jan. 1, 2013. (Secretary of State) Kobach said he wants to move up the effective date so that it will be in place when voter registration begins to surge ahead of the vote for president in November.

full story here.

Three of South Carolina’s top political leaders announced Tuesday their plans to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision to block the state’s controversial voter ID law.  Attorney General Alan Wilson said he will file a lawsuit within the next two weeks against the Justice Department in Washington D.C. district court.

…When asked how much the lawsuit would cost the state, Wilson said he was not ready to put a dollar amount on it. The state has hired Paul Clement, a former U.S. Solicitor General in Washington D.C., and Chris Coates, a former Department of Justice official in Charleston, to represent the state, said Mark Plowden, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.

full story at the link

The federal government is “assaulting the states on a daily basis,” Perry said.
“South Carolina, you’re in a state of war with the federal government,” Perry said. “They’re after your voter identification bill. They’re after your immigration billl that you passed.” 
 
full story.

Tabella below quotes SC House Speaker Bobby Harrell that the Palmetto State is going to give it everything it has to beat DOJ on Voter ID.  From what I am hearing, this is true.  An impressive arsenal of talent is being assembled to take Holder to court to obtain approval for Voter ID.  One person described the effort as “legal napalm,” with victory at all costs being the objection – and a uncompromising examination of the internal processes at DOJ which led to the objection.  Given some of the recent revelations which have come out of the voting section, this doesn’t seem like a fight that could end well for the side based in Washington.

Von Spakovsky provides this roundup of the fight between Eric Holder and the Lone Star State yesterday in the Supreme Court.

House Speaker Bobby Harrell on Monday defended South Carolina’s voter identification law, saying state officials will fight the law’s rejection by the federal government “with everything that we’ve got.”

Harrell said in an interview with GreenvilleOnline.com that the state’s law “is very, very similar” to one in Georgia, except that South Carolina allows someone to sign an affidavit confirming his or her identity if that person doesn’t have identification when voting. The U.S. Department of Justice approved Georgia’s measure.

full story

 “Desperate people do desperate things.”