The Hill reports on why Democrats are racing to stop voter ID before the November elections. The reporting reveals another big lie – that the so-called bipartisan VRAA would protect voter ID. Not true. Opponents of ID want to use the the VRAA preclearance measures to stop voter ID in states across the country. Yesterday’s initial ruling in Wisconsin shows exactly what voter ID opponents have in mind.
Critics of tough voter ID laws are running out of time and options in their efforts to knock down those barriers ahead of this year’s midterm elections.…Instead, Democrats, advocates and other voter ID critics see their best hope in passing an update to the Voting Rights Act (VRA), the 1965 civil rights law that the Supreme Court gutted last summer.Sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), the 2014 Voting Rights Act Amendment (VRAA) explicitly empowers states to adopt tougher voter ID requirements — an inclusion designed to attract conservative support — but it could also force some of those states to scale back those ID laws, a possibility being cheered by liberal voting rights advocates.The Leahy-Sensenbrenner bill remains a long shot, but on the issue of voting rights, voices on all sides of the debate say it’s the only game in town.The debate over voter ID laws took off in the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court’s VRA decision in June, when several states were empowered to implement previously passed photo ID mandates that would have required federal “preclearance” approval under the VRA provisions rejected by the court.