COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department was wrong to block South Carolina from requiring voters to show government-issued photo identification to vote, the state’s top prosecutor argued in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Enforcement of the new law, passed by state lawmakers last year, “will not disenfranchise any potential South Carolina voter,” Attorney General Alan Wilson argues in the suit against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
In December, the Justice Department rejected South Carolina’s law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, the first such law to be refused by the federal agency in nearly 20 years.
The department said the law failed to meet the requirements of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discriminatory practices preventing blacks from voting. The law also requires the Justice Department to approve changes to South Carolina’s election laws because of the state’s past failure to protect the voting rights of blacks.
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