There is a must-see poll by the Washington Post about voter ID. Every demographic supports Voter ID – blacks, whites, young, old, Republican, Democrat, citizen, and yes, non-citizen. This is the political headwind Eric Holder invited when his Justice Department decided to block South Carolina and Texas voter ID. The one group that opposes voter ID in the poll is ideological liberal Democrats, which as PJ Media readers know, describes the Voting Section at the Department of Justice.
Despite the wild support for voter ID, civil rights groups like the NAACP and ACLU have decided to burn up donor money in a repeatedly losing cause. They’ve lost in Georgia. And now they lost in Pennsylvania. (Find the court opinion here.) The Pennsylvania loss was deeply embarrassing for the ACLU and other civil rights groups. Before the decision, they crowed confidence, so much that sycophantic left wing bloggers reported on the pending “slam dunk win.”
The Pennsylvania decision is unlikely to be overturned on appeal. The judge based the decision on a strong factual foundation – that no voters were disenfranchised. Appeals courts cannot reverse a factual decision unless it is obviously wrong. So watch the ACLU and NAACP burn up more donor dollars rushing headlong into another loss in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Such is the cost of ideological blindness.
Now the fight turns to Virginia. In a few days, we will learn whether the Justice Department will block, approve or ask for more information about Virginia’s new voter ID law. We will learn whether it was sound to follow in the foolhardy footsteps of Texas and South Carolina by submitting Virginia voter ID to the DOJ, or going to court for approval. If DOJ asks for more information, it means trouble is afoot, and Virginia’s voter ID law may be effectively blocked for November’s critical Presidential election.
Eric Holder can achieve with a 45 cent stamp on a more information letter to Virginia what the ACLU failed to do in Pennsylvania spending hundreds of thousands of donor dollars. This is the power of the federal government has under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
Let’s hope someone with some sense inside DOJ realizes this is a losing fight, and preclears Virginia’s law Friday.
h/t to John Fund.
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