voter fraud

Widow Unnerved By James O'Keefe Voter Fraud Stunt

Ryan J. Reilly | May 16, 2012, 4:30PM

"If he were my son I would spank him."

That's how the widow of a North Carolina man whose name was presented at a polling station by an activist working with James O'Keefe's Project Veritas responded to a video the group released this week showing an individual using her deceased husband's name.

As Media Matters points out, Michael Bolton, Jr. -- a very much alive son of the widow who spoke to TPM -- is registered to vote at the same address as his recently deceased father. The poll watcher in the extended version of the O'Keefe video asks if he was the junior Bolton to which the Project Veritas operative responds: "That would be correct."

"I don't like the way they just felt that they could use my husband's name and put it out there," the widow told TPM. "It just wasn't right. My husband just died, and then they do that? Why didn't they use somebody from a year ago or five years ago. It was just very insensitive."

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Voter Identification

Court Scolds Texas For Delaying Voter ID Lawsuit

Ryan J. Reilly | May 8, 2012, 2:40PM

A panel of three federal judges deciding whether a voter ID law passed in Texas can go into effect over the objections of the Justice Department is criticizing the Lone Star state for delaying the review process. The delays, the court said, will mean the state wouldn't be able to implement its law for the 2012 election unless it meets very specific deadlines.

"Texas has repeatedly ignored or violated directives and orders of this Court that were designed to expedite discovery, and Texas has failed to produce in a timely manner key documents that Defendants need to prepare their defense," the three judge panel wrote in an order yesterday.

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Voter Identification

PA Voter ID Law Would Keep 93-Year-Old Who Marched With Martin Luther King From Voting

Ryan J. Reilly | May 2, 2012, 9:05AM

If there's a contest for most sympathetic plaintiff in a lawsuit opposing a state voter ID law, Pennsylvania's Viviette Applewhite wins.

The 93-year-old has voted in almost every election since 1960. Her daughter was a public servant. She has five grandchildren, nine great grandchildren, and four great-great grandchildren. She's a widow. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Macon, Georgia during the civil rights movement and traveled to Atlanta to hear him preach.

Under Pennsylvania's voter ID law, Applewhite wouldn't be able to vote.

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voter fraud

The Forgotten Front In The War On Voting

Ryan J. Reilly | April 30, 2012, 6:10AM

State restrictions on early voting, voter ID laws and regulations on voter registration groups have been getting a lot of attention this year because of the impact they could have on the 2012 election. But there's at least one voting issue that advocates say deserves more focus: the disenfranchisement of former felons.

Nationwide, the approximately 5.3 million Americans with felonies (and, in several states, those with misdemeanor convictions) are kept away from the polls, according to the American Civil Liberties Unions (ACLU). The organization is sponsoring the Democracy Restoration Act, a bill introduced by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), which would create a federal standard for restoring the voting rights of felons. The ACLU doesn't have any pipe dreams about passing the law this year, but they're holding out hope it will have a chance with a more favorable Congress.

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Virginia

Amid Voter ID Debate, Virginia Reports No In-Person Voter Fraud In 2008

Ryan J. Reilly | April 23, 2012, 2:21PM

As Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) prepares to decide the fate of a proposed voter ID bill in the Old Dominion state, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported on voter fraud prosecutions stemming out of the 2008 election that "may signal a more significant voter fraud issue than some state lawmakers realized."

One problem: the type of voter fraud that allegedly took place -- namely, felons voting when they shouldn't have been -- wouldn't have been prevented by the proposed voter ID law.

The Times-Dispatch reports that officials have prosecuted 39 cases of voter fraud out of the approximately 3.7 million votes cast in the 2008 election. The newspaper said that a majority of the 39 cases resulted in convictions and an additional 26 cases were still being investigated.

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Voter Identification

Conservative Group With Abramoff Scandal Ties Picks Up Voter ID Issue Where ALEC Left Off

Ryan J. Reilly | April 20, 2012, 11:32AM

Shortly after the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) announced it was dropping voter identification laws from its agenda, another conservative group is stepping in to fill the void.

The National Center for Public Policy Research announced this week it had formed a "Voter Identification Task Force" to continue ALEC's "excellent work" in "promoting measures to enhance integrity in voting." Describing itself as a "conservative, free-market, non-profit think-tank," the group was established in 1982.

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Voter Identification

Texas Tries To Keep Voter ID Debate Secret

Ryan J. Reilly | April 2, 2012, 11:20AM

The state of Texas wants the discussions their Republican legislators had about passing a voter ID law to stay secret.

Texas, which sued the federal government in an attempt to have their voter ID law approved, said in a court filing last month that "communications between members of the state legislature, communications between state legislators and their staff, and communications between state legislators and their constituents" should be protected by legislative privilege. The state also tried to prevent officials with the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division from deposing legislators who supported the voter ID legislation known as SB 14.

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Voting Rights Act

Craigslist Founder Jumps Into Voting Rights Fight

Ryan J. Reilly | March 29, 2012, 11:05AM

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark is jumping into the voting rights fight, with his group craigconnects publishing an infographic that illustrates the surge of voting restrictions that have been enacted in states around the country in recent years.

"What I learned in high school civics class is that an attack on voting rights is virtually the same as an attack on the country," Newmark said in a statement. "So I asked people smarter than me to help me do what George Washington would have wanted me to do, collect and release the information you're getting from us today."

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Texas

Texas Uses Voter ID Case To Launch Assault On Voting Rights Act

Ryan J. Reilly | March 15, 2012, 11:21AM

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has amended the state's lawsuit against the federal government over the rejections of their voter ID law to include a direct strike at the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act.

Abbott argues in the amended complaint that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, amended by Congress in 2006, "exceeds the enumerated powers of Congress and conflicts with Article IV of the Constitution and the Tenth Amendment."

"For the Department of Justice to now contend that Texas cannot implement its voter ID law denies Texas the ability to do what other states can rightfully exercise under the Constitution," Abbott said in a statement.

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voter fraud

DOJ Objects To Texas Voter ID Law; Says It Would Have Unfair Impact On Hispanics

Ryan J. Reilly | March 12, 2012, 10:50AM

The federal government will not preclear a photo voter identification law signed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) because it would have a greater impact on Hispanic voters, a Justice Department official said in a letter to state authorities on Monday.

Hispanic registered voters in Texas were either 46.5 percent or 120 percent more likely than average voter to lack a form of photo ID, according to data the state submitted to DOJ. The first data set was sent in September and the second in January, though Texas has refused to tell federal authorities which they believe is more accurate. The first data set said that 6.3 percent of Hispanic registered voters lacked photo ID compared to 4.3 percent of the general pool of registered voters, while the second data set said 10.8 percent of Hispanic registered voters lacked ID compared to 4.9 percent of registered voters.

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Scott Walker

Wisconsin Republicans Complain Voter ID Judge Signed Walker Recall Petition

Ryan J. Reilly | March 7, 2012, 4:01PM

Wisconsin Republicans have filed a complaint about the judge who temporarily blocked a voter ID law from taking effect, arguing he couldn't be a neutral arbitrator because he signed a petition calling for the recall of Gov. Scott Walker (R).

The complaint, filed with the Wisconsin Judicial Commission, said that Judge David Flanagan should have recused himself from the case or at least disclosed that he had signed the Walker recall petition. They pointed out that the group circulating the petition listed the voter ID law as one of the reasons to recall Walker.

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Voter Identification

Judge Temporarily Blocks Wisconsin Voter ID Law

Ryan J. Reilly | March 6, 2012, 4:51PM

A judge in Wisconsin's Dane County granted a temporary injunction barring enforcement of the state's controversial voter ID law on Tuesday, ruling that enforcing the law on April 3 elections would likely cause irreparable harm.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports that Circuit Judge David Flanagan ruled that a suit by the NAACP's Milwaukee branch and Voces de la Frontera against Gov. Scott Walker (R) had demonstrated that the lawsuit would probably succeed on its merits. He ordered Walker and the state to immediately cease their efforts to enforce or implement the law, pending a trial on April 16.

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voter fraud

Republican Commits Voter Fraud By Registering Dog As A Democrat

Ryan J. Reilly | March 1, 2012, 2:42PM

Updated: 2:50PM

A Republican man in New Mexico wanted to show how easy he thought it was to commit voter fraud. So the Albuquerque man did just that: committed voter registration fraud by registering his dog, Buddy, to vote.

Local news station KOB Eyewitness News 4 in New Mexico reported on the man's stunt this week.

"They should verify. Somebody should have verified this information and somebody should have come out and took a look at exactly who it was," the unidentified man told the news station. "But I made up a birth date, and I made up a social security number and I had a voter registration card in my hand for Buddy two weeks later."

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Eric Holder

Texas Rep. Gets Defense Of His State's Voter ID Law Wrong

Ryan J. Reilly | February 28, 2012, 1:00PM

Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) offered an impassioned defense of his state's voter photo ID law during an appropriations hearing featuring Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday. But he didn't get the details quite right.

In the middle of Culberson's questioning of Holder during an Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the Justice Department's budget request, Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA) asked Culberson whether photo IDs issued by state universities could be used at the polls under the Texas law.

"I.... I don't know why it wouldn't, I don't see any prohibition against it, I read it, I don't see it," Culberson said. "I've read it and I don't see any prohibition against a photo ID issued by a state university in Texas."

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Wisconsin

Wisconsin Veteran Irate At Voter ID Law: 'What The F*ck Did I Go In For?'

Eric Kleefeld | February 22, 2012, 4:35PM

Tuesday was the official launch of Wisconsin's new Voter-I.D. law, with citizens now required to present a photo-identification card in order to cast a ballot in the primaries for local elections. And as it turns out, one man refused to vote, because he was so angry that his card from the Department of Veterans Affairs was not on the approved list.

As the Racine Journal Times reported, 69-year old veteran Gil Paar was shocked when poll workers told him his photo I.D. from the V.A. wasn't on the accepted list. They then asked him if he had a driver's license -- which he did -- but he instead refused to show it and left the precinct. "Basically I was trying to make a point," Paar told the paper. "I gave them four years of my life, why shouldn't I be able to use my vet's card?"

As the paper reports, the state election officials explain that the way the law was written, a military-related I.D. must be issued by a uniform service -- which does not include the Department of Veterans Affairs. The bottom line: For whatever the reason might be, whether intentional or an accident, V.A. cards were not included on the list.

Paar, who described himself to TPM as an "Irish Catholic liberal Democrat" who has donated to President Obama, told us that he too was very surprised at this development.

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Voting

Virginia's Voter ID Bill A Solution In Search Of A Problem

Ryan J. Reilly | February 15, 2012, 6:09AM

There are no reports of anyone ever signing an affidavit claiming they were another person in order to vote in Virginia. But that isn't stopping Republican Virginia Del. Mark Cole from pushing legislation that would prevent such a scheme from taking place.

His bill -- which would make voters who lack an accepted form of identification cast provisional ballots -- has passed the House. It's raised the ire of Virginia Democrats who say it's just one in a line of legislative measures proposed by Republicans in states across the country who are trying to suppress Democratic turnout.

But Cole told TPM this week that his legislation isn't part of some grand conspiracy by, say, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). He said it's a solution to a potential problem brought to his attention by members of a county election board.

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Texas

Texas Sues Feds Over Voter ID; Says 'Colorblind' Policy Bans Racial Breakdown Of Voter Data

Ryan J. Reilly | January 23, 2012, 3:30PM

The state of Texas said Monday that it can't provide voter data allowing the federal government to evaluate whether its voter ID law is discriminatory because they don't track racial and ethnic data in order to "facilitate a colorblind electoral process."

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced on Monday Texas was suing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in an effort to "fast-track" its authority to enforce a voter ID law the state claims would "help deter and detect election fraud."

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James O'Keefe

'Dead' Voter Talking: O'Keefe Voter Fraud Stunt Confused 23-Year-Old For Dead 84-Year-Old

Ryan J. Reilly | January 14, 2012, 2:25PM

Robert William Beaulieu is 23-years-old, lives in Nashua, New Hampshire, and is a registered Democrat. He's also very much not dead.

But you wouldn't have known that if you watched the lastest undercover sting video from James O'Keefe's Project Veritas, which featured a man with an Irish accent attempting to obtain a ballot on behalf of a Robert Beaulieu who lives on Cassandra Lane.

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James O'Keefe

James O'Keefe Says $50K Donation Funded Voter Fraud Stunt

Ryan J. Reilly | January 12, 2012, 1:46PM

An "extremely generous donor" gave $50,000 to James O'Keefe's Project Veritas to fund their voter fraud stunt in New Hampshire on Tuesday, the conservative activist said in a email to supporters.

"Our Voter Fraud investigation is being funded with a gift of $50,000 from an extremely generous donor -- but that covers the cost of just ONE national project," O'Keefe wrote in a fundraising email.

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James O'Keefe

Election Law Experts Say James O'Keefe Allies Could Face Charges Over Voter Fraud Stunt

Ryan J. Reilly | January 11, 2012, 3:05PM

Update, Jan. 11, 5:00PM: Mark Zuckerman, a federal prosecutor in the New Hampshire U.S. Attorney's Office, told TPM he recently became aware of the Project Veritas video and was reviewing it but hadn't formed any opinion on whether it presented an issue.

It was one of the few -- if not the only -- coordinated efforts to attempt in-person voter fraud, and it was pulled off by affiliates of conservative activist James O'Keefe at polling places in New Hampshire Tuesday night. All of it part of an attempt to prove the need for voter ID laws that voting rights experts say have a unfair impact on minority voters.

Now election law experts tell TPM that O'Keefe's allies could face criminal charges on both the federal and state level for procuring ballots under false names, and that his undercover sting doesn't demonstrate a need for voter ID laws at all.

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Christopher Coates

Lawyer Defending South Carolina's Voter ID Law Thinks DOJ Is Biased Against White People

Ryan J. Reilly | January 11, 2012, 5:53AM

Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC)

Updated: Jan. 11, 11:45AM

South Carolina officials plan to file suit against the federal government because the Justice Department stopped the state from implementing a voter ID law that the state's own statistics showed would have a disparate impact on non-white voters. Fighting on their behalf will be a former DOJ official who claimed that the Civil Rights Division is opposed to protecting the civil rights of whites and who defended the Bush-era politicalization of the division by Bradley Schlozman as an effort to "diversify."

South Carolina has hired former Voting Section Chief Christopher Coates, who defied DOJ's instructions and testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights during the Republican-led probe into the infamous New Black Panther Party case, a spokesman for the South Carolina attorney general's office told The State newspaper.

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Voter Identification

Analysis: Minority Voters Overwhelmingly Rejected Mississippi Voter ID Law

Ryan J. Reilly | January 6, 2012, 1:48PM

Less than 25 percent of non-white Mississippi citizens voted in favor of a state constitutional amendment to require voter ID at the polls compared to about 83 percent of white voters, according to a newly released report.

An estimated 75 percent of the state's minority population rejected "Initiative 27," a constitutional amendment requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, while only about 17 percent of white voters went against the proposal, according to a report by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights.

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Artur Davis

Ex-Democrat Rep, Voter ID Convert Artur Davis Says He Might Run As Republican

Ryan J. Reilly | December 30, 2011, 5:17PM

After coming out in support of voter ID laws and donating to Republicans, former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis is continuing his march to the other side of the aisle, telling the Washington Post he could run for office as an independent or even a GOP candidate.

"I've heard some people at the national level encouraging me to run as an independent for my old office," Davis told WaPo's Aaron Blake. "While there have been Democrats who have switched down there, the Republican Party has refused to accept them. Do I agree with the agenda items in the Alabama Republican Party? Some I agree with, and some I don't."

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Voter Identification

Civil Rights Groups Press Justice Department To Block Other Voter ID Laws

Ryan J. Reilly | December 28, 2011, 5:34AM

Attorney General Eric Holder

It wasn't long after the Justice Department blocked South Carolina's voter ID law on Friday that Republicans accused the Obama administration of putting the President's reelection ahead of preventing voter fraud.

"Obama's S.C. voter ID decision shows he's putting the 2012 election above policy by opposing efforts to protect against cheating and fraud," RNC Chairman Reince Priebus wrote on Twitter, indirectly acknowledging that voter ID laws suppress Democratic voter turnout. "Moreover, from S.C. decision looks like they just want to benefit from cheating and fraud."

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South Carolina

BREAKING: Justice Department Blocks South Carolina's Voter ID Law

Ryan J. Reilly | December 23, 2011, 4:03PM

Updated: Dec. 23, 2011, 5:28PM

The U.S. Department of Justice will block the voter ID provisions of an election law passed in South Carolina earlier this year because the state's own statistics demonstrated that the photo identification requirement would have a much greater impact on non-white residents, DOJ said in a letter to the state on Friday.

The decision places the federal government squarely in opposition to the types of voter ID requirements that have swept through mostly Republican-controlled state legislatures.

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South Carolina

Justice Department Facing Deadline On Voter ID Decision

Ryan J. Reilly | December 22, 2011, 6:00AM

The Justice Department has to decide by Tuesday whether South Carolina has proven that their new voter ID law doesn't deny or abridge the voting rights of residents on the basis of race, nationality or language -- a decision bound to enrage either the mostly progressive opponents of voting restrictions or the mostly conservative backers of the identification measure, depending on how they come down on the matter.

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voter fraud

Fox Falsely Claims 'Mickey Mouse' And 'Adolf Hitler' Are On Scott Walker Recall Petition (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | December 15, 2011, 1:32PM

Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) shakes hands with Republican legislative members after delivering his budget address to a joint session of the legislature at the state Capitol on March 1, 2011 in Madison, WI.

Fox News reporter Eric Shawn told viewers on Thursday that signatures from "Mickey Mouse" and "Adolf Hitler" were "allegedly on petitions in Wisconsin in the recall for Governor Scott Walker." Fun little story with the potential to go viral? Absolutely. True? Not so much.

In fact, the original story that Shawn evidently built his report off of is about a strictly hypothetical situation discussed by members of the Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board who were asked what would happen if someone signed the petition as Mickey Mouse. There's been no actual allegation that anyone actually signed the petition against Walker that way.

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Eric Holder

Obama Administration Backs Bill Combating Voter Intimidation, Deception

Ryan J. Reilly | December 13, 2011, 6:05PM

United States Attorney General Eric Holder

The Obama administration is signaling support for a forthcoming Senate bill that would impose tough criminal and civil penalties on individuals who make and distribute campaign literature with false information intended to deceive voters and suppress turnout.

Attorney General Eric Holder will announce in a major speech on voting rights in Texas on Tuesday night that Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) will introduce the bill on Wednesday. The bill will be "narrowly tailored" to respect provisions of the First Amendment, according to Cardin's office. It will apply to "only a small category of false communications that occur during the last 90 days before an election, such as literature listing the wrong date or time for the election, giving inaccurate information about voter eligibility, or promoting false endorsements of candidates." A nearly identical bill was introduced by Schumer and then-Sen. Barack Obama back in 2007 but never passed.

In his speech at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library And Museum in Austin, Holder will call for election systems "that are free from fraud, discrimination, and partisan influence" and will say that protecting the right to vote and combating discrimination "must be viewed, not only as a legal issue - but as a moral imperative." Holder's speech also offers a challenge:

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Voter Identification

ACLU Sues Scott Walker Over Wisconsin's Voter ID Law

Ryan J. Reilly | December 13, 2011, 11:15AM

Wisconsin's voter ID law imposes the equivalent of a poll tax on individuals with out-of-state drivers licenses and discriminates against the poor, students and the elderly, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday.

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Eric Holder

Holder: 'You Don't See Huge Amounts Of Voter Fraud Out There'

Ryan J. Reilly | December 13, 2011, 6:00AM

Attorney General Eric Holder

If you've been following the debate over restrictive voter ID laws, the fact that there aren't many instances of voter fraud out there (especially of the type that could be prevented by voter ID laws) isn't news. What's interesting is who's saying it.

"You constantly hear about voter fraud... but you don't see huge amounts of vote fraud out there," Attorney General Eric Holder told the Washington Post.

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Voter Identification

NAACP Claims Voter Restrictions A 'Direct Response' To Increased Minority Participation

Ryan J. Reilly | December 5, 2011, 11:00AM

California Voters Wait To Cast Their Ballots On November 2, 2010

The efforts of various state legislatures to make it more difficult for people to vote are a direct response to the high levels of political participation by African-American voters in the 2008 election and the growth of communities of color shown in the U.S. Census, the NAACP claimed in a report released on Monday.

The "burgeoning political power" of minority voters, "has engendered a backlash," according to the report.

"In the face of far-reaching demographic and electoral trends revealing unprecedented minority political mobilization in America, an assault on voting rights accelerated in 2011," the report states. "In this year alone, over a dozen states imposed obstacles to voting at each key stage of the democratic process."

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Artur Davis

Former Dem Rep. Artur Davis Still Wouldn't Provide Examples Of Voter Fraud

Ryan J. Reilly | November 22, 2011, 5:30PM

Former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis, who now supports voter ID laws as a method of preventing voter fraud but refuses to discuss any particular instances he says he witnessed, is again declining to provide any examples of voter fraud he witnessed, claiming doing so would turn the debate over voter ID laws into a 'he-said-he-said' controversy.

"If you think I made it up, you're entitled to do that, and if you think there's no credibility and I just made it up because I had nothing to do some day, that's your prerogative," Davis told TPM in a phone interview on Tuesday.

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voter fraud

GOP New Mexico Sec of State Finds Tiny Fraction Of The Voter Fraud She Alleged

Ryan J. Reilly | November 18, 2011, 4:22PM

New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran said earlier this year that her state had a "culture of corruption" and referred 64,000 voter registration records to police that she thought were possible cases of voter fraud. Now a new report from her office proves she was completely right, 0.0296875 percent of the time.

Duran's interim report now alleges that 104 voters -- about one for every 10,577 on the rolls -- were illegally registered to vote. Of that group, just 19 -- or approximately one for every 57,894 registered voters -- actually allegedly cast a ballot they shouldn't have.

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Matthew Vadum

Columnist: 'Registering The Poor To Vote Is Un-American' Piece 'Indelicately Worded'

Ryan J. Reilly | November 15, 2011, 11:48AM

Conservative columnist Matthew Vadum explained to the Texas-based King Street Patriots on Monday night that his "Registering The Poor To Vote Is Un-American" article may have been "indelicately worded" but said his larger point stands.

"Why do I hate democracy and the poor?" Vadum joked, clarifying that he "wasn't saying that people shouldn't have the right to vote if they're poor."

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voter fraud

Tennessee Resident: I Really Had To Fight To Get A Free Voter ID

Ryan J. Reilly | November 14, 2011, 2:35PM

Updated: 4:07PM

Most people would have just paid the $8 fee to obtain a photo ID required to vote in Tennessee. Not Lee Campbell. The retired teacher and his wife fought for their right to a free photo ID and on Monday went to Capitol Hill to complain about what he called a "poll tax."

Campbell, a Utah native who taught and served as a teacher and a guidance counselor for 42 years and has voted in every presidential election since 1964, testified before a panel sponsored by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee on Monday that he "experienced first-hand the harmful impact of all these voting changes that are springing up across America."

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Eric Holder

Holder: Voting Restriction Efforts 'Inconsistent' With American Values

Ryan J. Reilly | November 8, 2011, 2:14PM

Efforts to make it more difficult for voters to cast a ballot are inconsistent with American values and will be thoroughly investigated by DOJ's Civil Rights Division, Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday.

"This Department of Justice will be aggressive at looking at this jurisdictions that have attempted for whatever reason to restrict the ability of people to get to the polls," Holder said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

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Artur Davis

Artur Davis, New Voter ID Convert, Donates To Republicans

Ryan J. Reilly | October 26, 2011, 5:25PM

Throwing his support behind his state's voter ID law isn't former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis' only new hobby. He's also started giving to Republicans.

The Daily Caller flags two donations Davis recently made to Republicans: one to Senate candidate Heather Wilson in New Mexico and another to Mississippi gubernatorial hopeful Phil Bryant.

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Artur Davis

Alabama Democrat Artur Davis Flips On Voter ID But Won't Say Who He Saw Committing Fraud

Ryan J. Reilly | October 25, 2011, 12:20PM

Former Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL) hasn't been making many waves since he left office, lost his bid for Alabama governor and joined a Washington law firm. About the only time he's been in the news is when he was offered up as an expert to say the Justice Department's case against John Edwards is weak (an area in which he might have a point).

Still, an editorial he wrote recently in support of voter ID laws has managed to ruffle some feathers. Davis wrote that as a member of Congress he "took the path of least resistance on this subject for an African American politician" when he "lapsed into the rhetoric of various partisans and activists who contend that requiring photo identification to vote is a suppression tactic aimed at thwarting black voter participation."

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Voter Identification

91-Year-Old Who Can't Stand Unable To Get Voter ID In Tennessee

Ryan J. Reilly | October 22, 2011, 1:18PM

If you're trying to avoid being disenfranchised by your state's voter ID law, it's usually a good idea to avoid being a minority, a college student or poor. As it turns out you also probably shouldn't be 91-years-old and have trouble standing for a long period of time.

Tennessee resident Virginia Lasater found out the hard way after she was unable to get the photo ID required to vote in her state because she wasn't able to stand in a long line at a DMV:

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Voter Identification

S.C. GOP Operative: AP Story Showing Impact Of Voter ID On Blacks 'Proves EXACTLY' Why Law Is Needed

Ryan J. Reilly | October 20, 2011, 1:50PM

Updated: Oct. 20, 3:15PM

The Associated Press put out a story this week showing that South Carolina's voter I.D. law "appears to be hitting black precincts in the state the hardest."

One person who really loved the story was Wesley Donehue, the CEO of Donehue Direct and a political strategist for the South Carolina Senate Republican Caucus, who took to Twitter to write that the story "proves EXACTLY why we need Voter ID in SC."

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