The Independent View: New Restrictions in Voting Laws

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is expected to enter the political waters of voting rights on Tuesday, signaling that the Justice Department will take an aggressive stance in reviewing new laws in several states that civil rights advocates say are meant to dampen minority participation in the national elections next year.

Mr. Holder is to speak Tuesday evening at the presidential library of Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965. The act enables the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to object to election laws and practices on the grounds that they would disproportionately deter minority groups from voting, and to go to court to block states from implementing them.

A draft of Mr. Holder’s speech urges Americans to “call on our political parties to resist the temptation to suppress certain votes in the hope of attaining electoral success and, instead, achieve success by appealing to more voters.”

Mr. Holder is also expected to make the case for overhauling elections systems, including automatically registering all eligible voters; barring state legislators from gerrymandering their own districts; and creating a federal statute against disseminating fraudulent information to deceive people into not voting.

This year, more than a dozen states set forth new voting restrictions. For example, Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin, imposed new laws requiring voters to present state-issued photo identification cards. Previously voters were able to use other forms of identification, like student IDs, bank statements, utility bills and Social Security cards.

The Justice Department is reviewing the new laws in South Carolina and Texas requiring voters to present photo identification cards. It has sought information from the states about the racial breakdown of the group of eligible voters who do not currently have such identification to see whether the rule would disproportionately deter minorities from voting.

The Justice Department is also engaged in litigation with Florida over a new state law restricting the availability of early voting, including barring it on the Sunday before Election Day, when black churches had traditionally followed services with get-out-the-vote efforts. It also imposed new rules on groups that conduct voter registration drives, including fining them each time a volunteer does not turn in a voter registration form within 48 hours. That section has prompted the League of Women Voters to stop registering new voters in Florida.

The three states are among 16 jurisdictions that must, under Section Five of the Voting Rights Act, receive clearance for any changes to their election laws because of their history of suppressing minority voting. They bear the burden of proving that their changes will not disproportionately prevent minority groups from voting, even if there was no discriminatory intent.

John Payton, the president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said he was traveling to Austin to attend Mr. Holder’s speech, adding it was “really important that he bring the powers that he has to bear on this challenge to our democracy.”

“Since the Voting Rights Act was signed,” Mr. Payton said, “we have not seen this much action that will have the effect of limiting people’s ability to vote. The Department of Justice has special powers under the Voting Rights Act and special responsibilities. It matters that the Attorney General is addressing democracy and voting, and the venue is obviously symbolic.”