NAACP Statement on South Carolina’s Decision to Sue DOJ Over Rejection of Voter ID Law
February 07, 2012(Baltimore, MD) – The NAACP has released the following statement from President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous regarding South Carolina’s decision to sue the Department of Justice over their voter ID law:
“South Carolina’s decision to fight for the right to resurrect their Jim Crow-like voter suppression tactics is deeply disturbing. Sadly, Gov. Haley’s unwavering adherence to the myth of voter fraud is just another display of the partisan politics that move our country backward rather than forward.
The data speaks for itself – there have been no prosecutable cases of voter fraud in South Carolina that would be prevented by this law. However there is credible evidence that thousands of minority, elderly, student, and disabled voters would be disproportionately disenfranchised if South Carolina enacted this law. For many rural and poor South Carolinians, like those born to midwives that could not ensure they received birth certificates, getting the necessary documents to vote would have been complicated and cost prohibitive.
Laws like these are modern-day poll tax, a stain on our democracy, and have no place in this nation.”
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Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.
