Voter ID and other restrictive voting laws may be subject to a federal investigation for voter suppression and voting rights violations.
Sen. Bill Nelson called for the investigation in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. Thursday.
“The attorney general is already reviewing whether Florida’s new voting law violates people’s civil rights in a few select counties that were previously found to be out of compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act,” according to Nelson’s office. “But Nelson’s request is for a broader probe across state lines into any possible machinations leading to the various new limits on people’s access to the ballot box – all implemented this year in more than a dozen states.”
“These voting changes could make it significantly harder for an estimated five-million eligible voters in numerous states to cast their ballots in 2012,” Nelson wrote to Holder, citing a recent study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.
Nelson also asked a Senate panel to conduct a congressional investigation of the election law changes.