Opinion

Editorial: States enacting dishonest voter identification laws





The New York Times criticizes states like North Carolina and Texas for enacting voter ID laws that only make it harder for people to exercise their rights:
The Justice Department on Monday sued North Carolina over the state’s restrictive new voting law, which requires photo identification for in-person voting and cuts back on early voting and same-day registration — all of which will disproportionately affect black voters. The suit, which follows similar litigation against Texas, is the latest effort by the department to go after voting discrimination in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in June striking down part of the Voting Rights Act.

Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. called the North Carolina law “an intentional attempt to break a system that was working,” and he said that it was clearly intended to discriminate on the basis of race.

But North Carolina and Texas represent only one front in the continuing battle to protect voting rights. Twenty years after Congress passed the “motor voter” law to make it easier for Americans to register to vote, numerous states keep trying to make it harder, relying on vague and dubious claims of voter fraud to push through misguided and harmful legislation.

Get the Story:
Editorial: The Dishonesty of Voter ID Laws (The New York Times 10/1)

Also Today:
North Carolina Governor Assails Suit on Voting Laws (The New York Times 10/1)

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