Despite the wide margin of voter support for Mississippi’s new Voter ID requirement, representatives are not optimistic about the law’s chances for approval prior to November 2012 elections – nor should they be, if their plan is to submit the law to DOJ for preclearance. Voters passed a ballot initiative in November 2011, with 62 percent in favor of the measure. An amended version passed the Senate, meaning HB 921 now will be kicked back to the House of Representatives. . . Once signed into law, the new constitutional amendment has to be approved by the United States Justice Department*. Rep. Gary Chism, R-Columbus, said he supports the bill, but he expects the Justice Department will turn it down, forcing an appeal. Either way, Chism said it’s unlikely voter identification requirements will be enforced by the November Presidential election. The American Civil Liberties Union is pushing for Attorney General Eric Holder to intervene. Lavonne Harris, president of the Lowndes County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said NAACP representatives at the local and state level plan to challenge the amendment, because they feel it’s a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
*No, it doesn’t – it can be submitted to U.S. District Court for preclearance. But Chism is right to expect that DOJ will turn it down and attempt to prevent its implementation or at least delay until after November.
Meanwhile, predictably, ACLU and NAACP are already planning their challenges.