KEEPING DOWN THE BLACK VOTE….Earlier this year Georgia passed a law requiring residents to present ID at polling places before they vote. If you don’t have a driver’s license, as many poor and elderly people don’t, you have to pay $20 to get a state ID card.
The purpose? To prevent fraud, of course. What kind of fraud? Let’s listen in:
The chief sponsor of Georgia’s voter identification law told the Justice Department that if black people in her district “are not paid to vote, they don’t go to the polls,” and that if fewer blacks vote as a result of the new law, it is only because it would end such voting fraud.
….[Rep. Sue] Burmeister said Thursday that the memo’s record of what she said “was more accurate than not,” but added: “That sounds pretty harsh. I don’t remember saying those exact words.”
I’m trying to think of what to say about this, but words fail me. I guess I’ll let Burmeister’s explanation speak for itself.
But remember this: the Bush Justice Department approved Georgia’s law even though they had Burmeister’s statement on record. In their view, this was not sufficient evidence of any kind of racial animus in the bill. One wonders just what kind of evidence Alberto Gonzales requires.
UPDATE: More on the subject here from Legal Fiction.
