Powerline on South Carolina voter ID law: “Obama’s DOJ Strikes a Blow”

Powerlineblog.com: Eric Holder announced at a speech at the Lyndon Johnson Library in Austin that the Department of Justice would take a hostile view of the various statutes that states have enacted to protect ballot integrity.

Thus, it was no surprise when DOJ announced today that it has rejected South Carolina’s voter identification law. Under Eric Holder, the Department of Justice has become a political arm of the Democratic Party. South Carolina officials said that they would fight DOJ’s ruling in court, pointing out that the Department was relying on grotesquely inaccurate data.

Contradicting Supreme Court, DOJ rejects photo ID law due to lack of voter impersonation fraud and speculative burden

The Wall Street Journal had the must-read article on DOJ’s refusal to permit South Carolina to implement a photo ID law.  Below is an excerpt from Assistant Attorney General Perez’s letter to South Carolina objecting on behalf of Attorney General Holder.

“Although the state has a legitimate interest in preventing voter fraud and safeguarding voter confidence,” it didn’t provide “any evidence or instance of either in-person voter impersonation or any other type of fraud that is not already addressed by the state’s existing voter identification requirement,” said Thomas Perez, assistant attorney for civil rights, in a letter to state officials.

In its letter, DOJ rejected South Carolina’s voter ID law, in large part because the state failed to provide “any evidence or instance of either in-person voter impersonation or any other type of fraud…”  Requiring a state to provide evidence of extensive fraud sets an elevated standard specifically rejected by the Supreme Court and in direct contradiction to the Court’s opinion endorsing photo identification and previous precedent. 

The Supreme Court cited to the Baker-Carter Commission which also acknowledged that voter fraud in close elections would dilute the valid votes of legitimate voters, sway close elections, and negatively impact voter confidence.  In Crawford v. Marion, the Supreme Court specifically noted that the fact that no evidence of impersonation fraud had been placed in the record was irrevelant to the analysis; In fact, no evidence was necessary to justify the legitimacy of the state interest in requiring ID. The Court found that photo ID legislation was perfectly acceptable to deter potential voter fraud. 

Also in its letter to South Carolina, DOJ asserted that requiring a voter to obtain a photo ID might burden voters to obtain the necessary documentation and prevent them from voting.  The Supreme Court had previously disposed of that argument by essentially stating that the burden to travel to an elections office with proof of identity or to a drivers license agency to obtain the appropriate identification is no more a burden that traveling to a polling place to cast a ballot.  The Supreme Court found the law was not discriminatory.  DOJ failed to take into account that voter turnout had increased in voter ID states thus speculating that voter ID would decrease turnout had no evidentiary basis and counter to existing statistics since implementation of the law. 

NY Times: First DOJ objection to any voter ID law in 20 years

The Justice Department on Friday rejected South Carolina’s law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, saying it makes it harder for minorities to cast ballots. It was the first voter ID law to be refused by the federal agency in nearly 20 years

…(Governor Nikki) Haley said the decision was more proof President Barack Obama is fighting conservative ideas like voter ID laws or immigration reform.

“The president and his bullish administration are fighting us every step of the way. It is outrageous, and we plan to look at every possible option to get this terrible, clearly political decision overturned so we can protect the integrity of our electoral process and our 10th amendment rights,” Haley said in a statement.

more at the link