Private attorneys defending the state against a lawsuit that targets Virginia’s voter ID laws and long election-day waiting times have asked a federal judge to dismiss the case. In filings this week they argued that the plaintiffs, including the Democratic Party of Virginia, don’t have standing to file the case, and that some arguments against the state amount to “speculative hypothetical.” The suit – one of several in swing states that target voting procedures ahead of the 2016 presidential elections – describes Virginia’s 2013 photo ID law and other state regulations as race-based efforts to curtail voting. Attorneys with Perkins Coie, which has brought challenges in other states as well as two separate redistricting suits here in Virginia, filed the case in June.
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, himself a Democrat, hired D.C. law firm Arent Fox to handle this case on the state’s behalf. Arent Fox attorney Mark F. “Thor” Hearne II is a former campaign attorney for President George W. Bush and has experience defending voter ID cases.
The two sides have been back and forth over dismissal since late August. U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson, a George W. Bush appointee, is presiding. The case was filed against the State Board of Elections, but was motivated by policies passed, discarded or ignored by the General Assembly’s Republican majority.
Full Article: Virginia pushes to dismiss voter ID suit – Daily Press.
