Not a big fan of the sternly worded letter strategy and not sure this will do much to help solve the problem. Nonetheless, it can’t hurt that 16 senators asked the DOJ to investigate the current spate of Voter ID laws to determine whether they violate the Voting Rights Act’s prohibitions on discrimination. I think it’s rather obvious that they do:
Studies have shown that as high as 11% of eligible voters nationwide do not have a government-issued ID. This percentage is higher for seniors, racial minorities, low-income voters and students.
In other words, Democratic voters. The danger here though is the GOPers who passed these laws will surely fight any challenges in the courts and SCOTUS would likely make the final determination. Considering the track record of the Roberts court, they could very well end up legalizing the disenfranchisement.
Which reminds me, the single most important reason to re-elect Obama is there is likely to be openings on that court in the next four years and we really don’t want a Republican president to be choosing the candidates. And please spare me the arguments about how Obama won’t nominate liberal enough judges who sufficiently hate corporations. Anybody he nominates will still be light years better than Roberts or Alito.