UPDATE: The U.S. Justice Department announced on August 29 officials need more information before deciding whether to approve the state’s photo ID law, according to the Associated Press.
State officials reportedly did not “provide enough data for the federal government to determine if the new law will disenfranchise minority voters.” Once the DOJ gets the requested information, “a new 60-day window will begin for the federal agency to render a decision on the law.”
It may or may not be effective in time for the November elections.
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With just days left before a decision must be made on the future of a new photo ID law in South Carolina, the state Democratic Caucus followed the lead of several voting rights groups–including the League of Women Voters and the ACLU–and filed an objection with the Justice Department against the restrictive new law.
Because of the state’s history of discrimination, any change in voting laws must be approved by the Justice Department under the Voting Rights Act. The Democratic Caucus urged the Justice Department to reject the new law that would have a dramatic impact on Black voters, especially since the law’s enactment follows a significant shift in the electorate, according to a State report.
“The 2008 general election was historic because it was the first election in which African-American voters in South Carolina voted in greater proportion than white voters,” wrote State Sen. Gerald Malloy, D-Darlington in a letter to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Malloy says the new bill is discriminatory against minority voters, as reported by the State:
• Minority voters are more likely to not have a photo ID, according to data from the S.C. election commission.
• Blacks in South Carolina, the state’s largest racial minority, “have a much higher incidence of poverty and lack of access to transportation,” making it difficult for them to obtain a photo ID
• Blacks are more likely to have their drivers license suspended, thus losing their ability to vote “because they do not have insurance or fail to pay traffic fines.”
Republican supporters of the new law say photo ID is a safeguard against voter fraud.
“There are no known cases of voter fraud in the state in the past decade, according to the S.C. Election Commission,” the Sun News reports. “However, one unconfirmed case of voter ID fraud occurred during the 2010 general election in Beaufort. That case still is under investigation, according to the commission.”
It is unclear if this one pending case involves voter impersonation, the only kind of voter fraud that can be prevented by a photo voter ID law.
This is just wrong,” Malloy said in a Sun News report. “With all the problems we have in this state relating to the economy, and we end up having a partisan bill that would disenfranchise poor and primarily African-American voters — this is not where we want our state to go.”