South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Tuesday that federal officials are waging war with South Carolina over laws the people want, like new voter ID requirements that she and other leaders pledged to defend from challenges by the U.S. Justice Department. … The bill passed last year with broad support from Republicans, who said it would be a check on voting fraud. But Democrats said it would suppress voter turnout by making it tougher on people who lacked identification, including the poor, elderly and blacks.
Haley said legislators addressed that by making state-issued photographic IDs free and noted less than 30 people took the state’s offer of rides to get ID cards. While nearly 217,000 active voters lacked state ID, the state didn’t produce a list of those names until well after the offer expired and now questions the reliability of the list altogether.
The Justice Department seized on questions about how voters lacking ID would be handled and has refused to clear the law, a requirement in states like South Carolina that have a history of voting rights problems.
Full Article: SC leaders say they’ll fight for new voter ID law | Aiken Standard.