- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, appearing at a Martin Luther King holiday
rally in South Carolina, warned on Monday that voting rights laws are still at
risk and said aggressive enforcement of those laws is "a moral
imperative."
Weeks after his Justice Department blocked a South Carolina voter
identification law it said would make it harder for tens of thousands of voters,
mostly minorities, to cast a ballot, Holder said the principle of electoral
equality was still endangered.
"The reality is that - in jurisdictions across the country - both overt and
subtle forms of discrimination remain all too common," Holder, who is black,
told hundreds of people attending an annual rally to honor King, the slain civil
rights leader, on the steps of the South Carolina state capitol.
"Protecting the right to vote, ensuring meaningful access, and combating
discrimination must be viewed, not only as a legal issue - but as a moral
imperative," Holder said. "Ensuring that every eligible citizen has the right to
vote must become our common cause."
The South Carolina law required voters to show a state-issued photo
identification card to cast a ballot in an election. Republican supporters said
it would prevent voter fraud, but Democratic critics argued it would make it
harder for those without driver's licenses, many of them poor and black, to cast
a ballot.
The Justice Department blocked the law after ruling it could hinder the right
to vote of tens of thousands of people. It noted that just more than a third of
the state's minorities who are registered voters did not have a driver's
license. The state plans to fight the ruling in court.
South Carolina is one of six Republican-led states that tightened their laws
last year to require a photo ID. Two other Republican-led states have similar
laws in place, while 23 other states require voters to produce some form of
identification.
Under the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act, South Carolina is one of 16
largely Southern states that must seek approval from the Justice Department or
the federal courts for changes made to state voting laws and boundaries for
voting districts.
"This keystone of our voting rights laws is now being challenged as
unconstitutional by several jurisdictions," Holder said, adding there was still
work to be done to ensure voter equality.
Holder was invited to the annual rally to honor King by the state chapter of
the civil rights group the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People.
South Carolina holds its Republican presidential primary on Saturday. The
Republican candidates have criticized the Justice Department's ruling as an
example of Washington's bureaucratic intrusion on state rights under President
Barack Obama.
read more;
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/16/us-usa-voterid-idUSTRE80F1CB20120116
