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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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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Florida

DOJ: Florida Voting Restrictions May Discriminate Intentionally

Ryan J. Reilly | March 20, 2012, 2:30PM

Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL)

New Florida laws that place harsh restrictions on third-party voter registration groups and limit the early voting period may have been passed with a discriminatory intent, lawyers with the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division suggested in a court filing on Tuesday.

DOJ told the court that the federal government's position was that Florida "has not met its burden of proof" in demonstrating that "the proposed voting changes neither have the purpose nor will have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on the basis of race, color, or membership in a language minority group." It singled out the provisions of Florida's new voting law that place restrictions on third-party voter registration groups, shorten the early voting period and make voters who move to a different county cast provisional ballots.

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Voting Rights Act

The Voting Wars Could Get Bloody

Ryan J. Reilly | March 19, 2012, 4:56AM

The key electoral battle in 2012 might be less about who you cast a ballot for, than about whether you get to cast a ballot at all.

Yes, the voting wars are heating up just in time for the 2012 elections. And between the Justice Department's opposition to voter ID laws in two states and several other state and federal cases brought against such laws by various civil rights organizations, the battles are only just beginning.

The Justice Department has already blocked restrictive voting laws in South Carolina, Florida and Texas, and state suits in response may see the Supreme Court take up a direct challenge to the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act this year.

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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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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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voting

Breaking: DOJ Opposes Florida Laws On Voter Registration Groups, Early Voting

Ryan J. Reilly | March 2, 2012, 11:45PM

Rock The Vote volunteers gather in New York City on November 4, 2008.

The Justice Department objected late Friday to new provisions of Florida election law which place strict regulations on third-party voter registration groups and cut down on the early voting period. DOJ alleged in a court filing that Florida was unable to prove the new provisions were not discriminatory under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

"As to the third-party voter registration and early voting changes enacted... respectively, the United States' position is that the State has not met its burden, on behalf of its covered counties, that the two sets of proposed voting changes are entitled to preclearance under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act," according to a court filing.

Florida had begun the preclearance process with DOJ but subsequently sued the government after federal lawyers asked for additional information about how some provisions of the state's new election law would be enforced.

Non-partisan groups like the League of Women Voters have ended their voter registration efforts in the state because of the law, which forces individuals conducting voter registration drives to get permission from the state and turn in voter registration cards within 48 hours of a voter filling them out. The League of Women Voters, the Brennan Center, and Rock The Vote are also fighting that provision of the law in court and an initial hearing was held earlier this week.

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Paul Clement

Why South Carolina's Voter ID Suit Could Be Bound For The Supreme Court

Ryan J. Reilly | February 8, 2012, 6:05AM

Paul Clement is the former Solicitor General of the United States and the guy conservatives go to when there's a Supreme Court case on the line.

So it's not surprising that it was Clement's signature that ended up on the complaint filed on behalf of the state of South Carolina this week, in a suit against Attorney General Eric Holder over DOJ's decision to block the state's voter ID law because of the disparate impact the state's numbers show it will have on minority voters.

It's a suit that supporters hope will not only enshrine South Carolina's voter ID requirement as the unquestioned law of the state, but that will also do away with federal restrictions placed on states like South Carolina because of their clear history of racial discrimination.

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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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Texas Redistricting

Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments In Texas Redistricting Case

Ryan J. Reilly | January 9, 2012, 5:00PM

The Supreme Court in Washington, DC

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Monday in a case that could have big legal consequences in Texas this election year as well as portend an uncertain future for Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

The justices seemed to struggle with how to handle a case focusing on Texas redistricting given the tight time constrains and the need to implement some map for the 2012 election. At issue is whether a panel of federal judges in San Antonio had gone too far when they drew up interim redistricting maps before a separate panel of judges had ruled on whether the original maps drawn by the legislature were discriminatory. Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act the burden of proof is on Texas to prove that their redistricting maps were not discriminatory, because of the state's history of racial discrimination.

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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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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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Rick Perry

Election Lawyer: Supreme Court Hearing Texas Redistricting Case Shows Their Partisanship

Ryan J. Reilly | December 12, 2011, 1:20PM

Texas Governor and Presidential Candidate Rick Perry (R)

The nine (or is it eight?) members of the Supreme Court are set to decide whether redistricting maps drawn by a federal court (after separate maps signed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry were found to be discriminatory) can go into effect.

The Supreme Court's one paragraph order on Friday placed a stay on the implementation of the maps, tossing Texas's congressional and state legislature elections into chaos. Political observers and participants in the case are still trying to figure out exactly what it means for the election timeline. A hearing is set for Jan. 9.

Gerry Hebert, an election lawyer in D.C. who is working for intervenors in the redistricting case, told TPM that the Supreme Court's decision shows that they're "just another governmental institution in Washington that's highly partisan."

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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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Voting Rights Act

DOJ: Texas Has Provided 'Incomplete' Information In Probe Of Rick Perry Signed Voter ID Law

Ryan J. Reilly | November 16, 2011, 5:45PM

Governor Rick Perry (R-TX)

Texas provided "incomplete" information that does not enable federal officials to determine whether their proposed voter ID law would be discriminatory, the Justice Department said in a letter Wednesday.

Essentially, the letter from DOJ Civil Rights Division Voting Section Chief T. Christian Herren Jr. restarts the clock on when the Department has to make a decision about whether the law signed by Gov. Rick Perry complies with the Voting Rights Act. They have 60 days from when Texas sends them complete information.

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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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Voting

Maine Approves Same-Day Voter Registration, After State GOP Suggested Initiative Was Pro-Gay

Ryan J. Reilly | November 9, 2011, 11:35AM

Despite a warning from Maine's Republican party that a gay rights group supported same day registration, state voters restored the option by a three-to-two margin Tuesday night.

"Maine has long prided itself on high voter participation, sparked by its long-standing practice of Same Day Registration (SDR)," Miles Rapoport, president of Demos and former Connecticut Secretary of State, said in a statement. "Now Maine's citizens have spoken loud and clear: They will not allow people who want to discourage real participation to diminish Maine's commitment to democracy."

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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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Maine

Maine GOP Ad: The Gays Are Trying To Impose Same Day Voter Registration

Ryan J. Reilly | November 8, 2011, 10:00AM

Here's an interesting way to rally opposition to a ballot proposition that would allow for same-day voter registration: convince voters that its being pushed by gay activists and their pro-gay agenda.

That's what the Maine Republican Party did with ads they paid thousands of dollars to run in Maine newspapers.

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Voting Rights Act

The E-Mails The Feds Say Show Texas Lawmakers Trying To Limit Voting Power Of Hispanics

Ryan J. Reilly | October 28, 2011, 12:00PM

The feds say there's "ample circumstantial evidence" that the redistricting maps signed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry had the effect and intent of limiting the voting power of Hispanic voters. But what's the evidence exactly? Let's take a look.

The most telling evidence Justice Department lawyers cite in terms of the state redistricting maps is a comment from state Rep. Beverly Woolley, who led the redistricting process in Harris County (an effort which excluded any minority members of the Harris County delegation). "[Y]ou all are protected by the Voting Rights Act and we are not," Woolley told a number of minority representatives. "We don't want to lose these people due to population growth in the county, or we won't have any districts left."

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Rick Perry

Feds: Rick Perry-Signed Texas Redistricting Plan Reduces Voting Power Of 479,704 Hispanics

Ryan J. Reilly | October 26, 2011, 6:00AM

Texas Governor and Presidential Candidate Rick Perry (R)

There is "ample circumstantial evidence" that the congressional and state representative redistricting maps signed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry had not only the effect but the intent of limiting the voting power of Hispanic voters, Justice Department lawyers said in a court filing late Tuesday.

DOJ is seeking to block the maps, filing to deny Texas' request for summary judgement in a case involving allegations that state officials tried to limit the voter power of Hispanic voters in violation of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

Federal lawyers contended in the newest filing that there is "ample circumstantial evidence of a discriminatory purpose with regard to both the State House and Congressional plans" and that in the new maps nearly half a million fewer Hispanics would live in districts where they would have the ability to elect a candidate of their choosing.

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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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Voter Identification

Voter ID Under Fire At Progressive Conference; Obama Calls Restrictions A 'Big Mistake'

Ryan J. Reilly | October 4, 2011, 10:45AM

A few dozen progressives sat in a room in the Washington Hilton on Monday during the Take Back the American Dream Conference discussing how restrictive voter ID laws would affect the 2012 election.

"The groups of voters that are going to be most impacted, what do you all think?" asked moderator Megan Donovan. "Who does this affect primarily?"

"College students!" someone said. "Minority groups!" said another. "Elderly voters!" chimed in one person. "Disabled voters!" said one woman.

"Democrats!" came a voice from the back of the room. The audience burst into laughter.

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Nikki Haley

Nikki Haley's South Carolina To Give Rides To 22 Voters To Get Photo IDs

Ryan J. Reilly | September 27, 2011, 4:15PM

Nikki Haley

Arguing last month that the voter ID law she signed into law in May wasn't discriminatory, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley offered to give voters free rides to obtain their photo ID from the DMV. 22 people took her up on it.

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DOJ

DOJ Has More Questions On Rick Perry's Voter ID Law

Ryan J. Reilly | September 23, 2011, 5:55PM

Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry during the Lincoln Day Dinner hosted by the Black Hawk County Republican Party in Waterloo, Iowa on August 14, 2011.

Updated: Sept. 23, 2011, 6:54PM

The Justice Department hasn't yet precleared a voter ID law signed by Republican presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R). In a Friday letter officials wrote that they need to know more about how the state would alert voters to the changes to the law.

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Justice Department

DOJ: Rick Perry's Texas Redistricting Plan Purposefully Discriminated Against Minorities

Ryan J. Reilly | September 23, 2011, 5:40PM

The Justice Department said late Friday that based on their preliminary investigation, a congressional redistricting map signed into law by Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry appears to have been "adopted, at least in part, for the purpose of diminishing the ability of citizens of the United States, on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group, to elect their preferred candidates of choice to Congress."

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