South Carolina’s new voter ID law could affect an unlikely group: older white voters who have higher incomes, are reliably Republican and live in retirement homes and gated golf communities along the state’s southern coast, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. There are roughly 217,000 active voters in the state who do not have a driver’s license or state ID card, election officials said. Of those, almost a third are 65 or older, and nearly 1,600 of them live in precincts in Beaufort County’s Sun City retirement community or affluent neighborhoods nearby, according to AP’s analysis.
The law has drawn criticism from Democrats and others who say it will hit the state’s black, poor, elderly and disabled voters the hardest because they don’t have a photo ID and face many challenges to get one.
Voters will need a state-issued ID or a U.S. passport or military ID to cast a ballot in person when the law takes effect, likely next year. It’s unclear how many active voters currently do not have any of the required forms of IDs.
Sun City GOP club president Bill Fearns is confident a lot of residents in his community have IDs that will work because they travel so much or are retired military. “I think the majority of Sun City residents were kind of in favor of photo ID,” Fearns said.
The U.S. Justice Department is reviewing the law to see if it complies with the Voting Rights Act. It will not impact local elections Tuesday and is increasingly unlikely to affect the Jan. 21 GOP presidential primary. If it survives legal challenges, it would come in to play for statewide primaries in June and Election Day next year.
Full Article: South Carolina Voter ID Law Could Hit GOP Seniors.