States jump to implement Voter ID laws after SCOTUS ruling

[Kablooie]

Now free from federal oversight, states are scrambling to push through restrictive voter registration laws.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced Tuesday that the state will now move ahead with a law requiring photo ID before voting, since it no longer has to get pre-clearance from the Department of Justice to implement it. “With today’s decision, the State’s voter ID law will take effect immediately,”

In North Carolina, state Sen. Tom Apodaca, also a Republican, said that the state Legislature will move forward with its own voter ID measure, which passed the state Assembly but has languished in the state Senate until the Court handed down its ruling.

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann was similarly quick to move forward, saying that the state will begin implementing a constitutional amendment, passed by voters, requiring voter ID.

http://www.salon.com/2013/06/25/states_jump_at_pushing_voter_id_laws_after_scotus_ruling/

[CrispyQ]

1. I now have an even lower opinion of people I know who vote republican.

How can a decent person support the GOP?

[PoliticAverse]

2. Note that the Justice Department is free to challenge such laws after they pass...

just as they've challenged voter ID laws in the past enacted by states that weren't under
the pre-clearance requirement.

[Progressive dog]

3. What you say is true but

the way that works is the law usually remains in effect until SCOTUS rules.

[Kablooie]

5. But if they implement a law shortly before an election,

it won't be able to go to court until long after the election is over, thus enabling the successful implementation of illegal voting laws.

That was the whole purpose of the original law. To judge the legality of a change before it can bias an election, not years afterwards.

[PoliticAverse]

6. Right. You can't really clean up the mess of such a law after an election. n/t

[PoliticAverse]

4. Specifically in regards to Texas...

Texas officials have no legal authority to unilaterally implement voter ID law, Supreme Court scholar says

http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2013/06/texas-officials-have-no-legal-authority-to-unilaterally-implement-voter-id-law-supreme-court-scholar-says/