When Republicans in Georgia created a new “voter-identification law” earlier this year, they said it wasn’t about race. Their only intention, they said, was to protect the integrity of the voting process and reduce instances of fraud. When they crafted the law to force Georgians without driver’s licenses (disproportionately poor, black and elderly citizens) to pay for a state ID card in order to vote, these same Republicans insisted it had nothing to do with discouraging African Americans from voting.
And today, all of their rhetoric looks pretty ridiculous. (thanks to J.C. for the tip)
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.
The newly released Justice Department memo quoting state Rep. Sue Burmeister (R-Augusta) was prepared by department lawyers as the federal government considered whether to approve the new law. […]
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.”
Well, Justice Department attorneys do remember her using those words, and since she’s willing to concede they’re pretty accurate, they deserve to be judged accordingly.
Needless to say, this isn’t going over well in Georgia. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a veteran of the civil rights movement, said, “It’s unbelievable that any elected official would say something like this. It doesn’t have any, any merit. This is an affront to every black voter and would-be black voter not just in my district but in the state of Georgia.”
It also raises questions anew about the priorities of Bush’s Justice Department.
Remember, Burmeister’s legislation — the one she said was necessary because black people only vote when they’re paid — needed approval from the Justice Department before it could become law.
A team of career DoJ lawyers and analysts reviewed the law and recommended rejecting it because it was likely to discriminate against black voters. Having direct accounts from Burmeister, the bill’s chief sponsor, only made the discriminatory motive more obvious. And yet, political appointees of Bush immediately overrode the recommendation and cleared the law.
Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman launched an outreach effort to African Americans a few months ago, characterizing that the Republicans’ race problems as a thing of the past. He was wrong.