Voter ID law issues highlighted in S.C.

(CBS News) 

South Carolina is one of seven states with new laws requiring a government-issued photo-ID to vote. The new laws have come with controversy.

The Justice Department has stepped in to block South Carolina's law, saying it could keep some voters away.

Overall, voters in nine states are subject to these laws, which sponsors say will help prevent voter fraud. Critics say the laws place an unfair burden on young, low-income, and minority voters.

CBS News correspondent Jeff Glor reports that the new laws' supporters insist that's not their intent.

"It wasn't directed at minorities. It was directed at the process," said Rep. State Senator Larry Martin, who sponsored South Carolina's photo-ID law in order to "protect the integrity of elections."

"I don't think you wait until there is a problem before you act," Martin said.

His stated goal: Stopping voter fraud.

"I know we didn't intend for that to be discriminatory," Martin said.

But Attorney General Eric Holder says it is discriminatory because black voters in South Carolina are 20 percent more likely than white voters to lack a driver's license or state photo ID card. Junior Glover, 73, is one of them. He's voted for decades, but doesn't have a birth certificate, which is required to get the new ID.

"They don't want to see you vote," Glover said.

Critics say the ID law is a solution in search of a problem.

"Voter fraud in South Carolina is a rare instance. It is not rampant," said Conway Belangia, director of Elections and Voter Registration in Greenville County, S.C.

Belangia has run elections in Greenville County for 20 years. He says a typo or clerical error on a voting record is sometimes misconstrued as fraud.

"The election process in South Carolina a least appears to be extremely clean over the entire state," Belangia said.

But state Motor Vehicles director Kevin Shwedo point outs 37,000 dead people are still on the state's voter registration list. That wasn't all he discovered.

"We saw approximately 956 individuals who had a date of voting after they had died," Shwedo said.

Shwedo can't say where or when the potential voter impersonation may have occurred. He's passed the information along to state investigators.

"More realistically, people voted using their name and credentials," Shwedo said.

The state's photo ID law won't apply in next week's presidential primary. It's on hold for now, pending the Justice Department review.

"I certainly do not want it to be an impediment to anybody that wishes to vote. We just want to make sure these folks are who they say they are," Martin said.

[Earl_Cuppington]

Every White country on the planet is forced to become multicultural and multiracial, yet no White country ever voted to become a non-white country.

EVERY white country is told to end its own race and culture. No one asks that of ANY non-White country.

Immigration and intermarriage is for EVERY White country and ONLY White countries.

Anti-whites call themselves "anti-racists", but their actions lead to the elimination of one race and only one race, my race, the White race.

The true goal of anti-racism is to wipe out my race. It is genocide.

Anti-racist is a codeword for anti-White.

[briteyes1]

You have a tiny little mind, you are ignorant, you make me embarrassed to be white.

[fredswanley]

Africa for the Africans,Asia for the Asians,white countries for EVERYBODY!

Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries.

The Netherlands and Belgium are just as crowded as Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them.

Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to "assimilate," i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites.

What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?

How long would it take anyone to realize I'm not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?

And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn't object to this?

But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.

They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white.

Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.

[larrylinn1]

Anyone with street sense knows that false photo ID's can be purchased in any major city, if they work the streets. Picture ID for voters? Who is going to verify the ID's? Who is going to train the people that have to verify the ID's? If the person wrongfully rejects a voter, can that person be sued? How do the absentee ballots get verified? The result will be more bureaucracy, with minimal results!

[bbglow]

If the Supreme Court considers corporations as individuals ... can corporations run for President ... :?.

[bbglow]

If the Supreme Court considers corporations as individuals ... should corporations pay taxes as individuals ... :?.

[credibility2]

I haven't any problem with states or municipalities requiring a legitimate state ID as a basis for checking in and legally voting. My state requires this and matches signatures on the ID's along with the voter registration forms. It's a bogus complaint that requiring legal identification discriminates against the poor and minorities. That's ridiculous, since nothing is stopping them from obtaining this type of ID at their state agency. There is too much fraud and far too many illegals voting when they haven't any right to do so.

[cliffndort]

All US citizens have the right to vote - period. In the good old days, there was not a huge problem with voter fraud, and the only thing you had to present to vote was a registration card that showed your name, address, and precinct. Now, especially with early voting where you can go to any voting place, it is extremely easy to cast more than one ballot.

I see absolutely no problem in requiring a photo ID. Your Driver's license works, so does a passport. If you have neither of these, the states are offering absolutely free photo ID cards that show who you are.

If you are qualified as a US citizen, you get to cast your ballot. Just prove it!

Unfortunately, many voters should be disqualified because of their stupidity, but that a whole nother issue.

[briteyes1]

How do you know it is easy to cast more than one ballot? is it because you have tried it? and how does it become more difficult when you have a photo ID.? I think your stupidity should disqualify you from voting you schmuck.

[rubberrezi]

Have a voter ID but make it free to everyone and not another way for the state to tax the poor.

[speakthetrut]

It is not just a matter of "Voter ID". New law requires a photo ID. That is where the problem is. Many living in remote areas, and especially the elderly, have to go to state or county office and get a picture ID created, and most likely pay $25 or more for the photo ID.

[texbelle123]

When I first started voting, you had to pay a Poll Tax. Yeah, it wasn't designed to "descriminate" either, but it was the official way for Southern states to keep some voters (Blacks) away from the voting booth. And it worked.
Now, we have Voter ID. New language, same goal. Whites in power trying to keep the power of the vote away from minorities.
Call it what you will -- it will be shown to be another in a long step of descriminatory practics ... all prettied up and justified by the "illegal immigrants" scare, but it is just the same ole s**t.
I'm gonna show up in Texas with my original birth certificate and by God defy them to deny me the right I have as a legally born citizen to vote!!!

[louiville12]

How about we just don't register at all and just walking when and if we feel like it, vote???

That's the way democrats want it and have been working hard to make it that way.

Once the American population loses trust in the election process then everyone will start cheating and we will have a free for all election with stuffed ballot boxes (electronic ones are best cuz you can change the vote of thousands of people by the click of a key board or just install a program that randomly changes x number of votes to your side), millions of dead people voting, prison felons voting from prison.... Is that what you want?

[briteyes1]

@ louiville12 You are a gullible schmuck, prisoners voting from prison and millions of dead people voting!!!!! how laughable what a drama queen, get a clue.

[louiville12]

Yep democrats just want to water down Americans voting rights by letting Foreign Nationals (Illegal Aliens) vote.

Just in Colorado in 2010 nearly 5,000 illegals voted many more were registered. At least three senator election (Reid, Bennett, Franken) votes were stolen by democrats with the aid of illegal aliens, Convicted Felons...... voting.

Treasonous

How any illegal aliens do you think voted in states like California? (Colorado 5,000, California 50,000???)

"In last year's Senate race nearly 5000 illegal aliens cast their vote in the election.

The revelation comes from Colorado Secretary of State, Scott Gessler. Testifying before the House Administration Committee, Gessler said his department conducted a study comparing the state's voter registration database against driver's license records.

After doing so they discovered 12,000 illegal aliens living in the state who were registered to vote. Of these, 5,000 actually cast votes in the last election.

Gessler told Rep. Gregg Harper, the panel's Republican chairman, the study was a 'disturbing wake-up call" and hoped it would prompt every state to verify its procedures to prevent illegal voting.

Responding to the report, Harper stated, "We simply cannot have an electoral system that allows thousands of non-citizens to violate the law and vote in our elections. We must do more to protect the integrity of our electoral processes.""

[briteyes1]

Do you have proof of this?

[chevyhotrod]

by skyk801 January 16, 2012 7:42 AM EST
How long have these crackers been doing garbage like this? It's nothing but the same old thing. They, the Whites in Power, know that Birth Certificates were NOT given to Blacks during Jim Crow and before. They know that it's very difficult for blacks to provide the "evidence" they require to obtain the ID they also require to address a problem that DOES NOT exist. Same TIRED old Bigotry from the Same TIRED OLD Crackers!

___________________

Using the word "cracker" is no different that calling others the "n-word". Racism exist whether your white or black and needs to end on both sides and is the same TIRED old Bigotry from the Same TIRED OLD people.

"We saw approximately 956 individuals who had a date of voting after they had died," Shwedo said."

956 individuals voted after they died is a problem and should be addressed.

[chevyhotrod]

Where did you learn to use the term "cracker" skyk? Did you learn that is History Class? Did you learn that is school? Did you learn that in College?

The only person that is racist is you skyk. Here is something I learn in school and fits you perfectly.

Psychological projection or projection bias is a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, usually to other people. Thus, projection involves imagining or projecting the belief that others originate those feelings.

Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted unconscious impulses or desires without letting the conscious mind recognize them.

An example of this behavior might be blaming another for self failure. The mind may avoid the discomfort of consciously admitting personal faults by keeping those feelings unconscious, and by redirecting libidinal satisfaction by attaching, or "projecting," those same faults onto another person or object.

[luadda22]

skyk is just like Obama, they must blame others for their short-commings. And they wonder why (kind of like Obama calling his grandmother a "typical white person") there may be an under-current of racism in this country. They go out of their way to reforce the stereotypical actions and statements that most "real racists" (a small minority)have of them. In the small mind of a racist (both black & white), if it walks like a duck, etc., etc. and then they go around quacking.