• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

All hail the time of the bunny!

In after Baud. Damn.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Mobile Menu

  • 4 Directions VA 2025 Raffle
  • 2025 Activism
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Right to Vote / Vote Like Your Country Depends On It / Republican Author of South Carolina Voter ID Bill High-Fives Racism

Republican Author of South Carolina Voter ID Bill High-Fives Racism

by Imani Gandy (ABL)|  August 29, 20127:30 pm| 12 Comments

This post is in: Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, hoocoodanode

FacebookTweetEmail

During yesterday’s hearing in federal court about South Carolina’s voter ID law, the author of the bill, State Rep. Alan Clemmons answered questions regarding the motivation for the bill, and it wasn’t pretty.

An attorney for the civil rights groups suing South Carolina under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 presented emails to Rep. Clemmons which evidence that Clemmons supports racially charged rhetoric used to denounce the notion that brown folks might not have the means or transportation to obtain voter ID.

Ed Koziol, a racist-ass South Carolinian, e-mailed Clemmons and said that if the legislature offered a reward for ID cards, “it would be like a swarm of bees going after a watermelon.” In response, Clemmons wrote, “Amen.” Amen, Ed! High five!

Additionally, Clemmons claimed not to remember handing out packets of peanuts with cards that read “Stop Obama’s nutty agenda and support voter ID.” (The civil rights attorney stated that Clemmons had previously testified he had handed out the nuts.)

WASHINGTON — A South Carolina lawmaker and the author of a voter ID law considered discriminatory by the Justice Department testified in federal court Tuesday that, while crafting the bill, he had responded favorably to a racist email in support of the measure.

State Rep. Alan Clemmons acknowledged his reaction in the second day of arguments before a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia over whether the law violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
~snip~
Garrard Beeney, who represented the civil rights groups, presented emails sent to and from Clemmons’ personal account between 2009 and 2011, when he was working on the law. One, from a man named Ed Koziol, used racially charged rhetoric to denounce the idea that poor, black voters might lack transportation or other resources necessary to obtain photo ID. If the legislature offered a reward for identification cards, “it would be like a swarm of bees going after a watermelon,” Koziol wrote.

Beeney asked Clemmons how he had replied to this email. Clemmons hesitated a moment before answering, “It was a poorly considered response when I said, ‘Amen, Ed, thank you for your support.’”

Beeney also contended that Clemmons, a Republican, wrote the law to suppress Democratic votes. Blacks in South Carolina typically vote Democratic. Beeney asked Clemmons whether he remembered distributing packets of peanuts with cards that read “Stop Obama’s nutty agenda and support voter ID.”

Clemmons said he did not, though Beeney said he had testified in June that he did.

I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you, that the voter ID law enthusiasts consider passage of these sorts of laws a way to ensure that folks who might vote for Obama can’t.

Oh wait — no I’m not.

[read full post at ABLC]

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « For A Good Time On The ‘Tubes (Self Aggrandizement Alert)
Next Post: Greatest Post Title Ever »

Reader Interactions

12Comments

  1. 1.

    ? Martin

    August 29, 2012 at 7:36 pm

    I think we’ll only see one more possible attempt at this. Texas should go democratic no later than 2020. Once they lose Texas, it’s game over.

  2. 2.

    Insomniac

    August 29, 2012 at 7:37 pm

    It never ends with these Republicans, does it?

  3. 3.

    Calouste

    August 29, 2012 at 7:40 pm

    @? Martin:

    So the GOP has 8 years to repeal the VRA? I assume the Supreme KKKlowns are itching for it.

  4. 4.

    eric

    August 29, 2012 at 7:41 pm

    You have to understand that we just cant trust the coloreds with the vote, they just dont have the faculties that white folk have. I thought that shit as politics died with Wallace, Nixon, and Atwater. I a not talking buzzword racism of Reagan or modern GOP, but this is pre-civil rights institutional racism.

  5. 5.

    khead

    August 29, 2012 at 7:42 pm

    I keep trying to get my bro to move out of South Carolina.

  6. 6.

    JGabriel

    August 29, 2012 at 7:49 pm

    __
    __
    eric: @eric:

    I thought that shit as politics died with Wallace, Nixon, and Atwater. I am not talking buzzword racism of Reagan or modern GOP, but this is pre-civil rights institutional racism.

    And the Conservatives / Mainstream Republicans(tm) have been trying to bring it back ever since.

    .

  7. 7.

    Davis X. Machina

    August 29, 2012 at 7:57 pm

    @Calouste: Opus Dei lo vult.

  8. 8.

    maya

    August 29, 2012 at 8:06 pm

    This IS South Cackalacky and we reserve the right to secede from anything. Care for a Palmetto?

  9. 9.

    Phoenician in a time of Romans

    August 29, 2012 at 8:34 pm

    I propose a simple solution – “No Taxation Without Representation”.

    It’s a simple idea – EITHER the State must show that any given person is on the electoral roll, OR that they are a member of a legitimately excluded group (such as a non-citizen or a felon) OR the State is not entitled to any taxes from that person, and must refund any sales or indirect taxes on request.

    States seem to be able to keep track of people they tax, somehow. So why doesn’t that automatically translate into teh right to vote?

  10. 10.

    karen

    August 29, 2012 at 9:27 pm

    Did you hear about how Texas, SC and other states are filing an amicus brief, saying the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional and should be overturned because it “impedes laws intended to make it more difficult for racial minorities to cast a ballot.”

    In other words the Constitution doesn’t want Ni-CLANG to vote.

  11. 11.

    1badbaba3

    August 29, 2012 at 10:38 pm

    @maya: Don’t you mean South KKKaKKKalaKKKi?

    There, much better.

  12. 12.

    karen

    August 29, 2012 at 11:42 pm

    @maya: The bug or the tree?

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - BarcaChicago  - Off the Gunflint Trail/Boundary Waters 7
Image by BarcaChicago (7/17/25)
Donate

Recent Comments

  • JoyceH on Donald Trump Boosts Higher Ed Enrollments (Jul 17, 2025 @ 6:22pm)
  • Harrison Wesley on Donald Trump Boosts Higher Ed Enrollments (Jul 17, 2025 @ 6:15pm)
  • DMcK on GOP Venality Open Thread: The Emil Bove Nomination (Jul 17, 2025 @ 6:15pm)
  • Geminid on GOP Venality Open Thread: The Emil Bove Nomination (Jul 17, 2025 @ 6:12pm)
  • Ramona on She must take after her mom… (Jul 17, 2025 @ 6:10pm)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!