SC Voter ID law blocked by USDOJ; NC efforts @ voter ID under assault

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*Sigh*  The Left is working overtime here at the end of the year to finish pushing our country into the ditch.

US Attorney General Eric Holder — who thought it was a great idea to hand over a bunch of automatic weapons to Mexican drug lords — says South Carolina cannot demand voters show ID before voting in that state:

The Obama administration entered the fierce national debate over voting rights, rejecting South Carolina’s new law requiring photo identification at the polls and saying it discriminated against minority voters.

Friday’s decision by the Justice Department could heighten political tensions over eight state voter ID statutes passed this year, which critics say could hurt turnout among minorities and others who helped elect President Obama in 2008. Conservatives and other supporters say the tighter laws are needed to combat voter fraud.

[…]

In its first decision on the laws, Justice’s Civil Rights Division said South Carolina’s statute is discriminatory because its registered minority voters are nearly 20 percent more likely than whites to lack a state-issued photo ID. Under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, South Carolina is one of a number of states that are required to receive federal “pre-clearance” on voting changes to ensure that they don’t hurt minorities’ political power.

“The absolute number of minority citizens whose exercise of the franchise could be adversely affected by the proposed requirements runs into the tens of thousands,” Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez said in a letter to South Carolina officials.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) called the decision “outrageous” and said she plans to seek “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.”

The law, passed in May and signed by Haley, requires voters to show one of five forms of photo identification. The state can now try to get the law approved by a federal court or seek reconsideration from Justice.

South Carolina cited the need to fight voter fraud in defending the measure. Whether election fraud exists to any significant degree and how extensive it may be is the subject of a divisive national debate. Some conservatives have long argued that fraud is a serious problem, but Perez said that South Carolina’s submission “did not include any evidence or instance” of fraud not already addressed by state laws.

The federal action — the first time the government has rejected a voter-identification law in nearly 20 years — signals an escalating national legal battle over the laws as the presidential campaign intensifies. The American Civil Liberties Union and another group recently filed a federal lawsuit contending that Wisconsin’s new voter-identification measure is unconstitutional.

Blacks are 20 percent more likely than whites to not possess photo ID???  That is alarming to me that we have so many people out there who cannot absolutely prove who they are.  When those people REGISTER to vote, how do they prove (1) that they are U.S. citizens, and (2) are not convicted felons?

Is this really about “discrimination,” or something else?  A story this week out of North Carolina suggests leftists’ concerns are really rooted in something else:

A federal judge has upheld a section of the U.S. Voting Rights Act that Rep. Stephen LaRoque and some Kinston voters had challenged.

Kinston officials voted to switch the city’s elections from partisan to non-partisan, but the U.S. Justice Department refused to allow that change, saying it would adversely affect the rights of black voters. The Kinston City Council refused to challenge the Justice Department’s decision, so LaRoque, R-Lenoir, and others took up the banner.

They argued that Congress exceeded its authority in re-authorizing a section of the act five years ago and that amendments to the section violated constitutional guarantees of non-discrimination.

U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington, D.C., ruled Thursday that the section of the Voting Rights Act in question is valid.

Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, called the ruling “a stand for justice and equality.”

“Voting rights are under attack across the country,” Barber said in a statement. “Fourteen states have already passed voter suppression laws that limit access to the polls and disproportionately impact minorities, poor people, young people, students and the elderly. Minority voting power is under attack through redistricting plans that marginalize minority voters, packing them into a few segregated districts so their influence is muted.”

LaRoque said he plans to appeal the ruling.

 So, the federal government AND the NAACP are opposing a move that would force voters to make choices based on their candidates’ beliefs (AKA content of their character) rather than their party affiliation.  The decisions in North Carolina AND South Carolina are all about preserving the leftist political machine’s ability to cheat and stay in power.
Want to see polling place cheating in living color?  Drive over to Robeson County, NC on election day. I’ve worked campaigns there.  You can see things like — for instance — the same van being driven to    ten different polling places within an hour (never stopping to pick up or drop off anyone).  The van is met by someone at the curb at each polling place, who hands a pile of ballots into the vehicle.  The completed ballots are handed back out and the van moves on.  “Curbside voting” at its finest.
In Robeson County, you can also see armed thugs lurking around certain polling places — just like in a Third World banana republic.  Where’s Jimmy Carter when you need him? Wait.  Robeson is a diehard Democrat county that Carter carried in 1976 and 1980.  He would be OK with what’s happening there.
Robeson has also been famous for being the last to report results in statewide elections.  If the race is close between the Democrat and Republican, or if the Democrat is behind by a close margin, Robeson magically produces enough votes to seal the deal for the Machine.
Leftists — like THIS know-nothing in Moore County — pooh-pooh voter ID laws by saying that there are not enough arrests to make them necessary. Really?  Requirements for ID to buy firearms don’t stop criminals from obtaining guns and using them in crimes.  ID requirements for buying beer don’t STOP underage drinking.  But ID requirements make both tasks HARDER than they would be with NO identification requirements.  Our right to vote is one of our most precious.  Why not take a few reasonable steps — like being able to prove who you are — to protect the integrity of the process?
How likely are you to go to the police to report vote fraud when you live somewhere like Robeson County, with armed thugs lurking around polling places?
The Left knows that BarryO and Boss Bev are “dead meat” in November 2012 with thinking, working, taxpaying Americans who have no professional or personal finance (Paycheck) ties to the government.  So, they have to keep the poorly educated dependent class in line, and CHEAT in order to survive 2012.  Just scream ‘racism’ if the Republicans question what you are doing.
It’s worked well for BarryO & co. for decades in Chicago.  They need it to work one more time — nationally — in 2012.