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Today I am announcing that the Justice Department will ask a federal court in
Texas to subject the State of Texas to a preclearance regime similar to the one
required by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. This request to “bail in” the state
– and require it to obtain “pre-approval” from either the Department or a federal court
before implementing future voting changes – is available under the Voting Rights Act
when intentional voting discrimination is found.  Based on the evidence of intentional
racial discrimination that was presented last year in the redistricting case,
Texas v. Holder – as well as the history of pervasive voting-related discrimination
against racial minorities that the Supreme Court itself has recognized – we believe
that the State of Texas should be required to go through a preclearance process
whenever it changes its voting laws and practices.

This is the Department’s first action to protect voting rights following the Shelby County decision, but it will not be our last.

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she's not surprised that Southern states
have pushed ahead with tough voter identification laws and other measures since
the Supreme Court freed them from strict federal oversight of their elections.

Ginsburg said in an interview with The Associated Press that Texas' decision to
implement its voter ID law hours after the court struck down a key provision of
the Voting Rights Act last month was powerful evidence of an ongoing need to
keep states with a history of voting discrimination from making changes in the way
they hold elections without getting advance approval from Washington.

The Justice Department said Thursday it would try to bring Texas and other
places back under the advance approval requirement through a part of the
law that was not challenged.

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Just hours after North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory  signed a sweeping voter ID measure into law,
a 92-year-old African-American woman has sued the state claiming that her constitutional
rights had been violated.

McCrory quietly signed the Republican bill that will require a voters to present a
government-issued ID, cuts early voting days, stops same-day registration, ends
"straight ticket" party voting, makes it harder for students to vote and gives poll
watchers new powers for challenging voters.

The first lawsuit, filed by the NAACP, says that 92-year-old Rosanell Eaton will
be disenfranchised after voting for 70 years.

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McCrory quietly signed the Republican bill that will require a voters to present a
government-issued ID,

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Last week, operatives tied to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee
launched what they call a 50-state initiative to promote voting reforms that would make
it easier to cast a ballot. The effort is being run by American Values First, an outside
group organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code and run by
Michael Sargeant, the DLCC’s executive director. Democrats will push legislation similar
to a Colorado measure signed into law earlier this year that requires all elections to be
conducted by mail.
Legislators in at least seven other states will propose bills that would tweak election
laws in other ways. In some states controlled by Democrats, the measures have a good
chance to pass. In other states with divided control or that operate under Republican
control, Democrats plan to use the measures as political cudgels, painting the GOP as
opposed to basic voting rights.

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Last month, Secretary of State Scott Gessler (R) had announced that
155 possibly illegal voters went to the polls in the November 2012 elections
-- out of more than 3,050,578 voters in Colorado.

Now a review by Boulder County's top prosecutor has found that all 17 instances
of allegedly fraudulent voters in his county were, in fact, verifiable U.S. citizens.

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There is no public policy justification for a voter ID law. Voter impersonation at
the polls - the only type of fraud that could be addressed by a voter ID law - is virtually
non-existent. Despite spending millions on a 2005-2006 voter fraud crusade, Texas
Attorney General Greg Abbott did not find or prosecute one case of voter impersonation.

A national five-year effort by the Bush Justice Department netted only 86 prosecutions
from 2001 to 2006.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

REAL voter suppression is when people who are NOT eligible to vote or who are being used to vote twice (or otherwise defraud the system) are allowed to vote, and nullify the votes of LEGITIMATE voters.  For law-abiding people, it is very easy to get a photo I.D. in this country.  

FIGHT VOTE SUPPRESSION -- REQUIRE PROPER I.D. FOR ALL VOTERS.

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Speaking at the CEO Forum in Raleigh, North Carolina to an audience that
included Governor Pat McCrory (R), former Secretary of State Colin Powell attacked
the restrictive voting law the governor signed into law on August 12. The new
law requires photo identification at the polls, limits the number of early voting
days and makes it difficult for college students, both in-state and out, to vote.

Moments after the Governor left the stage, Powell said he generally wants “to see
policies that encourage every American to vote, not make it more difficult to vote.”
He also said that the new law will hurt Republicans, because it “immediately turns
off a voting block the Republican Party needs.” To minority voters, he said, it sends
the message that “we are really sort of punishing you.’”

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The Department of Justice is making good on Attorney-General Eric Holder’s
promise.  On Thursday, the DOJ announced it will challenge Texas’ voter ID law because
the law violates the Voting Rights Act as well as the 14th and 15th amendments of the
U.S. Constitution.  In a separate action, the DOJ also plans to challenge the state
GOP’s redistricting plans.