Voter identification continued to be a hot topic for legislators in 2011. Four states — Kansas, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Texas — approved laws requiring voters to present photo identification before casting ballots.
A fifth state, South Carolina, had passed its own voter-identification law, but it was overturned Dec. 23 by the Justice Department. South Carolina is required to submit revisions in voting procedures for federal clearance as a state with a history of discrimination at the ballot box, but it can appeal Justice’s ruling in federal court.
So: For how many years after the Jim Crow era will South Carolina's election laws be subject to the veto of an unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat in Washington?
Forever, of course.
There is nothing South Carolina will ever be able to do to get the federal monkey off its back. If the state elected a black governor and a black-majority legislature, any election laws they pass will still be overruled at the whim of federal clerks. The federal government does not surrender power.
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