#rsrh AG Eric Holder blissfully unaware of Justice Dept. ID requirements.

Via Weasel Zippers, via Instapundit, comes this fairly (and slightly surprisingly) smack-Holder-in-the-nose piece from Politico over the Attorney General’s epistemic closure:

Due to a recent work assignment, I had the opportunity to enter a federal courthouse about 200 times in the past six weeks or so. Each and every time, I was asked for a photo ID, which the court security officer looked at and then allowed me to put away in my wallet.

This procedure, which takes place tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of times each day in federal courthouses across the country, is apparently entirely unknown to the nation’s top law enforcement officer, Attorney General Eric Holder.

Continue reading #rsrh AG Eric Holder blissfully unaware of Justice Dept. ID requirements.

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R, VA) signs Voter ID bill.

Because statewide elections matter

Executive summary: the new legislation now requires people filling out provisional ballots from lack of acceptable ID at the polling station “to subsequently submit identification to the electoral board if they want their vote to be counted.”  The list of acceptable forms of ID was also expanded to include things like current utility bills and valid student IDs, which will no doubt raise eyebrows among people familiar with voter fraud; but making voters responsible for verifying their own provisional ballots is a pretty important step.

Naturally, agents of the Left (like Anna Scholl of ProgressVA) are livid about this legislation passing.  As usual, they’re taking the (heavily racist) position that black people are too stupid to remember to bring their voter registration card, Social Security card, driver’s license, state college ID, employee photo ID, utility bill, bank statement, government check, and/or paycheck to the polling station*. Or perhaps Scholl simply doesn’t believe that black people have any of those things: it’s been my experience that hardcore progressive activists are often suffering from raging cases of epistemic closure… Continue reading Gov. Bob McDonnell (R, VA) signs Voter ID bill.

#rsrh Annnnnnnnd here we go: TX wants to challenge Section 5 of VRA.

Guess the state government is still a little ticked at the way that they had to delay their primaries a couple of times.

Texas on Wednesday asked a federal panel weighing its photo ID requirement for voters to allow its attorneys to challenge the constitutionality of a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, taking a direct shot at the statue that has blocked the state from enforcing tightened voter requirements.

In a filing to a three-judge panel in Washington, Texas asked to submit a petition charging that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act “exceeds the enumerated powers of Congress and conflicts with Article IV of the Constitution and the Tenth Amendment.”

Go figure.  I mean, doesn’t everybody accept the existence of blood guilt these days?  Silly conservatives. Continue reading #rsrh Annnnnnnnd here we go: TX wants to challenge Section 5 of VRA.

Judge David Flanagan linked to Scott Walker recall. Twice.

Quick background, as to why you should care: Judge Flanagan has placed a temporary (although you can count on the Democrats wanting to put that adjective in scare quotes, and right quickly) restraining order on last year’s Wisconsin voter reform law mandating that voters show picture ID.  There are a few “this just happens” involved, here:

  • This just happens to prevent Voter ID from being implemented in Wisconsin’s open Presidential primary in April 3rd.  Normally that wouldn’t be all that big a deal, except that this year the Democrats are openly calling for disrupting the Republican nomination process.
  • This just happens to be a judge who last year signed a recall petition against Governor Scott Walker.  And Flanagan neglected to admit to this event, prior to making his decision.
  • And this just happens to be a judge who has former Kathleen Falk (and current Wisconsin Education Association Council) adviser Melissa Mulliken as his campaign manager.  This is important because Falk is of course running against Scott Walker in the recall election – and WEAC has preemptively endorsed Falk.  Also, Mulliken has been prominent in the anti-Walker crusade.

Continue reading Judge David Flanagan linked to Scott Walker recall. Twice.

Project Veritas stings New Hampshire Voter ID-less laws.

And I hope that they have good lawyers. REAL good lawyers.

Contrary to Matt Lewis, this is not unbelievable. This is why we insist on Voter ID laws.

To summarize the video, James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas sent a couple of people to New Hampshire primary polling places claiming that they were individuals that had actually died in the last couple months. They were, of course, secretly filming the proceedings… and came away with footage of multiple occasions where the poll workers let them have the ballot. Note, by the way, that every video clip ends with the Veritas people giving back the ballot without actually voting: I don’t know whether that will actually protect the group from being accused of voter fraud, but then that’s why we have a court system. At any rate, the video ends with some poor sacrificial lamb of a ward coordinator confidently assuring the Project Veritas people that nobody could get away with what the Project Veritas people just did. Continue reading Project Veritas stings New Hampshire Voter ID-less laws.

#rsrh Let me be blunt about the NAACP petitioning the UN…

to interfere in voter registration reform programs in America.

  • As per Ed Morrissey, the UN does not have the authority to interfere.
  • The United States does not particularly need any ‘help’ with ensuring fair elections.
  • Even if we did, the UN’s core competencies do not extend to ensuring fair elections.
  • And if we ever do need help in the UN’s core competencies – which is to say, raping children and screaming at Israel – I’m sure that we have the UN’s contact information around here somewhere.

That’s all.

Moe Lane

PS: It’s a freaking photo ID card.  You need one to buy cigarettes, drink beer, rent a car, and/or fly anywhere.  The Republic will survive requiring citizens having one in order to vote.

Artur Davis (D, apostate) admits he got Voter ID wrong.

Which begs the question: what else did former Alabama Congressman Artur Davis* (D) get wrong?

I’ve changed my mind on voter ID laws — I think Alabama did the right thing in passing one — and I wish I had gotten it right when I was in political office.

[snip]

Voting the names of the dead, and the nonexistent, and the too-mentally-impaired to function, cancels out the votes of citizens who are exercising their rights — that’s suppression by any light. If you doubt it exists, I don’t; I’ve heard the peddlers of these ballots brag about it, I’ve been asked to provide the funds for it, and I am confident it has changed at least a few close local election results.

Bolding mine.  I’d like the former Congressman to expound a little on that part, if he pleases; only this time, with names, addresses, and last known location.  Actually, I’d like him to expound a little on that part even if he doesn’t please.  Because what Mr. Davis is describing are felonies. Continue reading Artur Davis (D, apostate) admits he got Voter ID wrong.

DSCC inadvertently reveals its 2012 battleground?

Not that, if they did, they intended to do that, mind you: they were probably just intending to scare their donors into giving them money (link via @MattCover) by screaming about how us awful, awful Republicans are so insistent that you should show have to show a picture ID when you vote. Well, they’re Democrats. Screaming about Republicans is what they do – besides, these days they don’t precisely have a plethora of other options that are what you’d call viable when it comes to winning elections.

But that’s not what interests me. No, what interests me is this sentence:

More than 5 million voters could be affected in states including Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, Nevada, Virginia and California…

Hmm. Let’s look at those states. Assessments of each one is based on the latest Cook ratings for the Electoral College and the Senate. Continue reading DSCC inadvertently reveals its 2012 battleground?

Thanks to EJ Dionne for clarifying the Voter ID issue…

…or, more accurately, the issue of voter registration fraud so comprehensively.  Not that he meant to, of course.  While whining about voter ID laws in Texas (and other states), Dionne wrote this sentence:

In Texas, for example, the law allows concealed handgun licenses to work as identification, but not student IDs.

Here, real quick: go find your old student ID.  Is there an address on it?  The answer is probably “no:” colleges don’t like to put anything on those things that would require them to be reissued every year.  College students – particularly ones that live on-campus – simply move around too much over the course of their time in school; and keeping track of a student’s current address is frankly not the school’s problem*. So you can expect name, picture, signature, and a bar code; some schools include date of birth, and other schools care more about cutting down on students drinking.  And that level of ‘identification’ is useless for verifying identity and establishing residency.  So, until there’s an established standard for student IDs that is actually useful for Voter ID purposes, get used to student IDs not being accepted. Continue reading Thanks to EJ Dionne for clarifying the Voter ID issue…

Election reform bill passes WI state house.

Wisconsin’s voter ID bill passed, 60-35; it now goes to the Senate, to be worked on next week.  The bill will require that voters show picture ID before voting: what really has Democrats in a tizzy about this is that to be valid a student ID will need “current address, birth date, signature and expiration date.”  This effectively removes all Wisconsin student IDs from consideration… and if they start adding that information it will become abundantly clear, very quickly, that a lot of students are not going through the hassle of changing their legal address every year to reflect their attending college.  Which is another way of saying that a lot of students are voting in districts that they’re not actually supposed to be voting in.

This is the real issue for Democratic party bigwigs, methinks – and for all that they pretend that it’s a minority voter issue.  The reality is, people will bend over backward to make sure that the urban poor get ID to keep from being disenfranchised: this country takes voting seriously; it’s the right thing to do; and – if the first two reasons aren’t enough – the federal government will come down like a hammer from orbit on anybody trying anything different.  But students being told that they can’t vote in Madison because they actually live in Sheboygan?  Yeah, that’s going to get less sympathy. – even if the Democratic party would rather have that vote count in Madison. Continue reading Election reform bill passes WI state house.