S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson on Tuesday said the state will file suit against the U.S. Department of Justice, which last month rejected the state’s new Voter ID law requiring all voters to show a valid state-approved photo ID in order to cast a ballot. Wilson said his office planned to file suit within the next 10 days in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, as Patch first reported last week.
“Our intent is to ensure … that no voter is suppressed in their right to vote and that the integrity of the electoral process is protected,” said Wilson, who appeared with S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley, state House Speaker Bobby Harrell, state Sen. Kevin Bright, and several state lawmakers at a noon press conference at the Statehouse. It was a fear of voter suppression and disenfranchisement that prompted DOJ to reject the state’s law, passed last May, in the first place.
Last month, Justice’s Civil Rights Division said the state’s statute is discriminatory because its registered minority voters are nearly 20 percent more likely than whites to lack a state-issued photo ID.
Full Article: Video: Haley, SC to Sue Feds Over Voter ID – Mount Pleasant, SC Patch.