The Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus is asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to block the state’s plan to start using a voter identification law. “The law adversely affects Mississippi’s most vulnerable population, namely, the elderly, minorities and disabled,” the caucus wrote a letter dated Wednesday and released Thursday. Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann says the June 3 federal primaries will be the first time Mississippi voters will be required to show a driver’s license or other form of government-issued photo identification at the polls. Mississippians approved a voter ID constitutional amendment in 2011, and legislators put the mandate into law in 2012.
At that time, Mississippi and other states with a history of racial discrimination needed federal approval to alter election laws. Mississippi’s voter ID proposals were still being analyzed by the Justice Department last summer when a Supreme Court ruling struck down part of the Voting Rights Act and erased the requirement for federal approval.
However, the caucus wrote that under a surviving part of the Voting Rights Act, Section 3, the federal government can require “preclearance” of election changes from states with recent records of discrimination in voting practices.
Full Article: Black Miss. lawmakers seek to block voter ID law – SFGate.