–Gee, all we wanted is to end voter fraud.

Mitchell’s laws: Reduced money growth never stimulates economic growth. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Austerity breeds austerity and leads to civil disorder. Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
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Washington Post: Justice Dept. rejects South Carolina voter ID law, calling it discriminatory
By Jerry Markon, Published: December 23

The Obama administration entered the fierce national debate over voting rights, rejecting South Carolina’s new law requiring photo identification at the polls and saying it discriminated against minority voters.

Friday’s decision by the Justice Department could heighten political tensions over eight state voter ID statutes passed this year, which critics say could hurt turnout among minorities and others who helped elect President Obama in 2008. Conservatives and other supporters say the tighter laws are needed to combat voter fraud.

Is there vote fraud? Of course there is lots of it. But it’s fraud committed by the politicians. I’m talking about gerrymandering, losing ballots, miscounting ballots, tampering with voting machines, threats against voters, accompanying voters into voting booths, inconveniently located polling places, filling out ballots for voters, closing polling places early, voting machines that “don’t work,” paying for votes and on and on. Those constitute the real fraud, none of which is prevented by poll taxes, quizzes, I.D.s and the dozens of other little schemes designed to keep the poor from voting.

In its first decision on the laws, Justice’s Civil Rights Division said South Carolina’s statute is discriminatory because its registered minority voters are nearly 20 percent more likely than whites to lack a state-issued photo ID. . . . “The absolute number of minority citizens whose exercise of the franchise could be adversely affected by the proposed requirements runs into the tens of thousands,” Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez said in a letter to South Carolina officials.

This must come as a complete surprise to S.C. officials.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) called the decision “outrageous” and said she plans to seek “every possible option to get this terrible, clearly political decision overturned so we can protect the integrity of our electoral process and our 10th Amendment rights.”

The law, passed in May and signed by Haley, requires voters to show one of five forms of photo identification. The state can now try to get the law approved by a federal court or seek reconsideration from Justice.

South Carolina cited the need to fight voter fraud in defending the measure. Whether election fraud exists to any significant degree and how extensive it may be is the subject of a divisive national debate. Some conservatives have long argued that fraud is a serious problem, but Perez said that South Carolina’s submission “did not include any evidence or instance” of fraud not already addressed by state laws.
[…]
The voter-identification measures, enacted mostly by Republican legislatures, also impose restrictions on early voting and make it harder for former felons to vote. One study estimated that the changes could keep more than 5 million voters from the polls. But the laws have proven popular, according to some surveys. Last month, Mississippi voters easily approved an initiative requiring a government-issued photo ID at the polls.

What? Republicans voting for a law hurting the poor? Mississippi and South Carolina voting against blacks? Hmmm . . .

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

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No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption + Net exports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY