Voting Laws Dismantled by Eric Holder

Elise Shore

J. Christian Adams...
Eric Holder’s Justice Department wields enormous power over the American political landscape heading into the 2012 elections. Under the Voting Rights Act, sixteen states must submit any election law change to the Justice Department for approval. The law also gives the states the right to go to federal court for approval instead.

States need to understand the biographies of the DOJ officials who will be responsible for managing the review of these submissions. PJM has learned their backgrounds weigh in favor of bypassing the DOJ and going straight to court.

Sixteen states, mostly in the south, must submit the tiniest of changes to the federal government for approval under the Voting Rights Act. If a polling place moves from a school cafeteria to the school gym, Washington must approve. If a voter registration office expands business hours by 15 minutes, Washington must approve. If a state adopts a photo identification requirement or passes new legislative districts, changes now occurring across the nation, Washington must approve.

If states covered by Section 5 want to see their redistricting plans and voter identification laws approved, they should go to federal court and bypass the bureaucrats inside the DOJ. Many are relishing the prospect of states like South Carolina running the gauntlet of hostile Justice Department lawyers to obtain approval of voter identification laws or new legislative districts. After Hans von Spakovsky and I urged states to go to court instead, partisan Democrat lawyers claimed fears of DOJ were overblown.

Tell that to Georgia. Georgia enacted a law requiring voter registrants to demonstrate they are American citizens. To Elise Shore at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, this was an outrage, and her organization sued Georgia. She did much more. She badgered DOJ to interpose an objection to the citizenship requirement in 2009. When MALDEF talks, the Obama DOJ listens. Georgia then decided to yank the submission from DOJ and sue in federal court for approval. For good measure, Georgia challenged the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

The bureaucrats ran for the hills in terror, knowing the federal court would approve the citizenship verification requirement, and terrified the court would strike down Section 5. James Buchanan won a Nobel Prize in economics for his Public Choice theory, the idea that bureaucrats make decisions based on personal self-interest rather than public criteria. The swift DOJ retreat on the Georgia citizenship verification objection, and the fear that continued DOJ intransigence might nullify dozens of high-paying jobs inside the Voting Section, brought a swift capitulation by Voting Section management.

And what does Elise Shore, formerly of MALDEF, do now? She works in the Obama Voting Section and will be reviewing state redistricting plans and new voter integrity laws in Florida.

Not only did Shore contribute $1,000 to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, her resume is a lengthy story of a leftist activist. Shore also worked for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, a group dedicated to “environmental justice” and aiding illegal aliens. Naturally, while at MALDEF, she vigorously campaigned for comprehensive amnesty for illegal aliens and characterized the citizenship verification program as an attempt to “disenfranchise” not only Hispanics, but also blacks. She also fought against Georgia’s photo identification requirement for voters, something states passing such laws should realize...Read More

 This is an exerpt from part one of a ten part series by PJ Media.

Read parts two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and Ten to see what this racist, Social Justice Department has become under Eric Holder.

Here is J. Christian Adams' new book...