The burden of preclearance for a non-discriminatory South Carolina photo ID law: $3.5 million.
The article opines that the costs were high because DOJ (and the intervenors) tried to make the Section 5 preclearance process as lengthy and costly as possible. That strategy may come back to haunt them as it shows the lack of proportionality of Section 5. The cost of Rhode Island photo ID section 5 preclearance: $0. Cost of South Carolina photo ID section 5 preclearance $3.5 million. The cost of Tennessee photo ID section 5 preclearance: $ 0. Kansas….yep, you guessed it: $0.
Why were the costs associated with defending this law so high? That’s a good question … Obviously the costs associated with defending this legislation fall most squarely on the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) – which went out of its way to make political hay at South Carolina’s expense (even after its non-political staff recommended approving the legislation).
“Damn liberal bureaucrats in D.C. are responsible for this bill,” one source familiar with the case tells FITS.
More to the point, the fact that South Carolina is one of a handful of states which has to “pre-clear” election laws with Washington is ridiculous. Our state has a black U.S. Senator and an Indian-American governor – and while neither of them is the fiscal conservative champion they claim to be – their presence in such high offices would seem to indicate the Palmetto State’s history of disenfranchising minorities is a thing of the past.