U.S. Department of Justice approves Virginia’s new voter ID law, a GOP victory

Gov. Bob McDonnell announced Monday night that the U.S Department of Justice had approved Virginia’s new voter ID law[1], effectively allowing the law to go into effect in time for Election Day.

According to McDonnell, officials from the Justice Department concluded that the new voter ID law does not violate the Voting Rights Act. Under the law, Virginians will no longer be allowed to vote without identification, but the types of identification accepted at the polls was also expanded.[2]

In his announcement, McDonnell stated that “The legislation I signed into law is a practical and reasonable step to make our elections more secure while also ensuring access to the ballot box for all qualified voters.”[3]

While the “secure voting” argument may sound reasonable, it excludes the fact that voter ID laws across the country have been written and passed exclusively by the Republican Party. What some critics say these laws amount to are a new poll tax and literacy test created primarily to restrict the votes of minorities, a voting bloc that usually votes for the Democratic Party.[4]

Another piece of evidence that takes away from the “secure voting” argument is that no widespread voter ID fraud had been discovered in Virginia until well after the new voter ID legislation was being pushed around in the VA General Assembly.[5] That is, Virginia’s legislators hadn’t known about widespread voter fraud before they began legislating to “secure voting.”

For the present, the consequences of the new voter ID law for registered voters in Virginia is unclear. But in a time and place where every law has a political goal in mind, it’s hard to imagine that this GOP brainchild will not in some way benefit Virginia’s Republican Party.

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[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/virginia-lawmakers-split-bitterly-over-voter-id/2012/02/02/gIQAxj2NnQ_story.html

[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/justice-department-upholds-virginia-voter-id-law/2012/08/20/76d609f6-eb2a-11e1-a80b-9f898562d010_blog.html

[3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/justice-department-upholds-virginia-voter-id-law/2012/08/20/76d609f6-eb2a-11e1-a80b-9f898562d010_blog.html

[4] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debbie-hines/voter-id-is-the-new-poll-tax_b_1797394.html

[5] http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2012/apr/22/tdmain01-va-investigates-voter-fraud-ar-1859666/