Since when did Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann become the state’s chief legal officer? Last time I checked, Atty. Gen. Jim Hood was, under the 1890 state constitution, judicially established as the state’s chief legal officer. Totally ignoring that fact, the politically-ambitious Delbert is telling the media he’s the state’s champion to confront the monstrous U.S. Department of Justice and keep it from blocking the state from imposing a new law requiring Mississippians to show an approved ID in order to vote. “He (Hosemann) wants to be driving the train on the voter ID issue,” says NAACP attorney Carroll Rhodes, “while driving it off the tracks.” Rhodes on behalf of the NAACP will oppose whichever legal move the state makes to put its new voting limitation into effect.
Congress in 1965 adopted a federal law requiring states with a long record of enforcing legal barriers to keep black citizens from voting to get pre-clearance from DOJ or by the Federal court of the District of Columbia before any voting law change. Mississippi headed the list of historically discriminating states. Obviously when GOPers came into power they quickly forgot lessons from the state’s history of being the birthplace of the notorious post-Civil War “black code,” which for decades not only kept blacks from voting but also from holding public office.
Now, under the guise of the ballot initiative adopted last November they seek to install a voter ID scheme that has all of the markings of a poll tax, while concealing their fundamental agenda to disenfranchise minorities, elderly and poor who tend to vote Democratic.
Full Article: Voter ID battle will be costly – Bill Minor – SunHerald.com.