Category Archives: National News/Commentary

Good-bye and good riddance, DODT!

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Sept. 20, 2011 is a day to celebrate! Why? Because it marks the official repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and we are celebrating loud and proud in South Carolina.

In Columbia, join SC Equality, The Harriet Hancock Center and Service Members Legal Defense Network (SLDN) for a celebration ceremony including comments from Rep. James Smith at the Veterans Memorial, followed by an after-party at Blue!

In Charleston, we partner with Take-Over Charleston, AFFA, and SLDN for a celebration including live music and great speakers at Taco Boy! Details here.

SC Equality and AFFA are longtime members of the SC Progressive Network.

The continuing toll of 9/11

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Number of people killed in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when al-Qaeda operatives hijacked jetliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field: 2,996

Date on which then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered aides to look for evidence of Iraqi involvement in the attacks: 9/11/2001

Of the 19 identified hijackers, number who were Iraqis: 0

Date on which the U.S. and its allies launched strikes in Afghanistan against al-Qaeda and its ally, the Islamist militia Taliban: 10/7/2001

Date on which the U.S. and U.K. launched war against Iraq after claiming it was hiding weapons of mass destruction: 3/20/2003

Number of those alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that were ultimately found: 0

Estimated number of civilian casualties in Iraq since the 2003 invasion: 102,416-111,937

Estimated number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan through 2010: 8,832

Number of coalition forces killed to date in Afghanistan: 2,705

Number of those forces killed that were U.S. troops: 1,760

Number of coalition forces killed to date in Iraq: 4,792

Number of those forces killed that were U.S. troops: 4,474

Of the over 6,200 U.S. troops killed to date in Afghanistan and Iraq, percent that were from the South: 34

Number of U.S. troops still in Afghanistan: about 100,000

Number of U.S. troops still occupying Iraq: almost 50,000

Total number of U.S. veterans who have served in Afghanistan or Iraq over the past decade: 1.6 million

Estimated cost of future disability payments and health care for those veterans: $600 billion to $900 billion

Number of U.S. veterans thought to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression: 300,000

Number of U.S. veterans who commit suicide each year: 6,500

Percent by which the Army suicide rate has increased over the past decade: almost 200

Date on which a federal appeals court ruled that the Department of Veterans Affairs was failing to properly care for vets with combat-related mental illnesses: 5/10/2011

Total direct U.S. government spending on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars so far: $2,000,000,000,000

Amount that represents per U.S. household: $17,000

Percent by which bills yet to be received are expected to increase this amount: more than 50

Amount the U.S. is expected to spend this year on the war in Iraq: $48 billion

On the war in Afghanistan: $122 billion

Number of children who could be provided with health care for two years with the money being spent on those two wars in 2011 alone: 43 million

Compiled by the Institute for Southern Studies

Home is where your heart is

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By Christine Johnson
SC Equality

I was frankly a little scared when I returned to South Carolina for employment in 2010. Raised in Charleston 30 years ago and recalling the discrimination my African-American friends endured, I suspected that as an open lesbian, I might face similar discrimination and lack of understanding. I knew some people would think I “chose” to be lesbian and that I was both unpatriotic and godless. I knew many would not understand the way I value family and treasure authenticity or my profound respect for the Constitution.

When I came home, however, I remembered that I was also proud of the richness of diversity, culture and tradition that makes South Carolina my true home. We celebrate arguably the best cooking in the country and the most gracious hospitality, and we know the value of simple kindness. We are diverse in race, ethnicity and faith, and when it really comes down to it, we respect one another as fellow South Carolinians.

Make no mistake, I’ve found my fair share of unkind folk. I’ve been the target of disrespectful gestures, called tasteless names and heard jokes at my expense, but mostly found that “bless your heart” is the common response to sharing my sexual orientation and work in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy. In addition, I’ve found a LGBT community that, although challenged and discriminated against, thrives in my home state. And you know why? Because like you, South Carolina is their home too, and we share a similar adoration of this beautiful place.

People both in and out of South Carolina are surprised to learn that in 2008, the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School estimated there were 117, 500 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people living here. And according to the 2010 Census, there are 11, 532 same-sex couples in our state.

But the numbers shouldn’t surprise us, because there is no difference in the per capita number of homosexuals born in South Carolina than in California or New York — and apparently, home is where your heart is.

Last summer, S.C. Equality conducted a survey of more than 1,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender South Carolinians, from 44 of 46 counties. More than half had lived in South Carolina for more than 20 years, 86 percent were raised Protestant, 64 percent attend church, and nearly 10 percent had served in the armed forces. So there it is: We are growing in number and love our state, are patriotic and God-fearing, and I suspect that when all is said and done, there is no constitutional or justifiable reason to treat fellow South Carolinians as less than equal under the law.

Yes, there are those who perceive homosexuality a choice and a sin according to their beliefs, and I can respect that. But we cannot grant rights, protections and entitlement to only some people based upon our religious beliefs. Our federal Constitution grants equal protections, and creating classes of people based upon discrimination is unconstitutional. There’s simply no way around it.

So, we can agree to disagree, each with individual opinions and beliefs, voting our consciences, but at the end of the day, we are all South Carolinians with hopes and dreams for our families and our futures. Although there is much that makes us different, there is so much more that makes us one. Different isn’t bad, diversity is a blessing, and for me, home absolutely is where my heart is.

Johnson is a former two-term member of the Utah House of Representatives, and is executive director of S.C. Equality, a longtime member of the SC Progressive Network.

Disenfranchising voters is not American

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By Jaime R. Harrison
SCDP 1st Vice Chairman

My first political memory is sitting on the floor in front of the television watching the results of the 1984 Presidential election with my grandfather. I asked him hundreds of questions about the candidates, the White House, and past Presidents, and in his loving way, my grandfather attempted to answer each question to the best of his abilities.

Society would have classified my grandfather as a simple but hard-working man, a product of the segregated south. He didn’t have much money, he didn’t have much education, and he didn’t have a fancy job. But what he had and cherished was his dignity, his family, and his right to vote. It was a right that he didn’t always have — and sometimes didn’t even exercise. Nonetheless he felt it was a right that could not and would not be taken away from him.

The South Carolina Voter ID bill that was passed with GOP support and signed into law by Governor Haley, disenfranchised more than 180,000 South Carolina citizens, and if my grandfather was still alive it would have disenfranchised him as well (after having his leg amputated he no longer had a government issued Driver’s license).

Thanks to the efforts of the Democratic members of the Senate and House, the SC Progressive Network and others to oppose the bill on the grounds that it discriminates against minorities and seniors, the Department of Justice is asking for more information about the legislation.

As Americans – not as Democrats, nor as Republicans, but as Americans – we must keep the pressure on the DOJ, in the 60-day window we have to make sure the SC Voter ID bill is finally struck down. This bill not only affects our state but others across this nation, who are facing the same efforts to suppress voter participation.

As Americans, members of our armed forces have given their lives to help other nations realize the blessings of liberty and democracy. Politicians on both sides of the aisle applauded when Iraqi citizens were able to exercise the right to vote for the very first time. In Iraq, one woman stated that voting for the first time was “as if I’ve just been born” and another stated that it was “the best thing I have actually ever done in my life.”

How as a nation can we sacrifice the lives of our children so that others may enjoy the fruits and practice of democracy, but find every possible way to disenfranchise citizens on our very own soil? Our leaders should make it easier for citizens to be a part of our thriving democracy.

My grandfather passed away in 2004, and one of the last things that we did together was that I took him to cast his last vote for President. I got into politics and became a lawyer because I wanted to make a difference and prove that the American dream could work for everyone – rich or poor, black or white. Disenfranchising voters is not American, and the SC Voter ID bill is more of an American nightmare rather than the fulfillment of the American dream.

Folks like my grandfather are counting on all of us to do everything within our means to make sure that this law and others like it are not enacted. Contact the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division (vot1973c@usdoj.gov) and share your thoughts on this unjust legislation.

Feds find SC’s photo ID law inadequate

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As state works to satisfy DOJ’s questions, SC Progressive Network will continue to educate and mobilize SC voters

By Becci Robbins
SC Progressive Network Communication Director

The US Dept. of Justice denied approval of South Carolina’s new voter ID law on Aug. 29, giving the state another 60 days to make its case. As required by the Civil Rights Act, DOJ has been reviewing the law to ensure that it does not abridge the rights of minority voters.

In its ruling, DOJ asked the state eight questions about procedures on obtaining photo voter registration cards, funding for voter education and poll worker training, and the process for casting provisional ballots when a voter has no photo ID.

The SC Progressive Network filed voter affidavits and comments with DOJ, highlighting the burdens posed on rural, poor and minority voters, and the likelihood of the law’s unequal enforcement.

DOJ raised many of the concerns the Network has about how the state will work around the burden posed by voters needing a birth certificate to get the required DMV ID card. The final version of the bill included a provision that a registered voter could obtain a photo voter registration card – pending funding – that would serve as acceptable ID without mandating a birth certificate. One camera for each county office has been funded for this purpose. The cards will be made in Columbia and mailed to voters.

In an Aug. 25 submission to DOJ, the state filed draft procedures for issuing photo voter registration cards. The plan entails issuing paper voter registration cards that a voter cannot vote with unless they have the DMV photo ID. If they don’t have the required photo ID, they must go to their county voter registration office and trade in their paper registration card for a “temporary voter registration card with a photo” that is good for 30 days. Permanent photo voter registration cards with photos will be printed by the state election office and mailed to voters.

Not only is the process burdensome to voters and election workers, it is inadequately funded. In June, $1.4 million was appropriated to cover everything from buying the cameras to mailing notices to the estimated 200,000 registered SC voters with no photo ID, to educating the public and poll workers on the new law.

As confusion and costs over the ID law mount, we should remember that no one has ever been caught impersonating another voter at the polls in SC, the sort of fraud this law was designed to prevent. Rather than protecting the sanctity of the vote, as proponents claim, the new requirement does nothing but make it harder to vote in South Carolina. For some voters, the burden will be too high.

While the state digs itself deeper into a hole of its own making, the Progressive Network will continue to educate voters and expand an organized coalition of citizens to fight this and other laws compromising voting rights in South Carolina.

AG opinion compounds voter photo ID confusion; does not delay implementation of SC law

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By Becci Robbins
SC Progressive Network Communications Director

Contrary to a headline published widely Aug. 16, implementation of South Carolina’s new photo ID law will not be delayed.

The Associated Press reported that a recent Attorney General’s opinion on what constitutes a “reasonable impediment” to obtaining the required photo ID meant the new law would be put on hold. The AG was responding to a request by state Election Commission Director Marci Andino, who asked for clarification on “the meaning of reasonable impediment” and whether the clause would apply to voters in this year’s municipal elections.

“We can’t spend any money on the new photo voter registration cards until, and unless, the US Department of Justice preclears the law,” Andino said. She asked the AG whether the “reasonable impediment” clause would apply to all voters if the new system was not in place.

The AG’s opinion is that the new law allows voters with a “valid reason” to vote without the photo ID, and that a failure to implement the new system would indeed be a valid reason. Such voters will be required to fill out an affidavit stating the reason, and then vote a provisional ballot.

“There is nothing in the Attorney General’s opinion that delays any aspect of the new voter ID law,” said SC Progressive Network Director Brett Bursey. The opinion states that “any valid reason, beyond the voter’s control” is a “reasonable impediment.”

The confusion portends trouble in upcoming elections.

“This law was ill-conceived, poorly written, under-funded and hastily implemented,” Bursey said. “Rather than ensuring the integrity of the vote, as proponents of the new law claim, it ensures that voting will be more difficult. The AG’s opinion substantiates our concerns.”

To obtain a state-issued photo ID requires a birth certificate in the voter’s current name, or a paper trail showing legal name changes. The new law contains a provision for county election boards to provide photo voter registration cards to those already registered, waiving the requirement of a birth certificate.

“While it is good that the state is trying to work around the requirement of a birth certificate to vote,” Bursey said, “the old system worked fine, and there is no reason to subject voters to the burdens and expense of this law.”


Delores Freelon is one of 178,000 registered SC voters without a photo ID. She’s had serious problems meeting the new requirements.

Making the 178,000 currently registered voters without a photo ID cast a provisional paper ballot will mean longer lines for voters and headaches for poll workers. Each voter will have to fill out an affidavit, and then the 46 politically appointed county boards of elections will have to examine each ballot and decide if the vote should be counted.

The SC Progressive Network has been gathering comments from voters around the state having trouble meeting the new ID requirements and submitting them to the US Department of Justice. DOJ has until Aug. 29 to decide whether the law violates the Voting Rights Act. Because of South Carolina’s history of racial discrimination, all changes to voting laws must be pre-cleared by DOJ.

For background on the photo ID law and information on commenting to DOJ, see scpronet.com or call 803-808-3384.

Now’s your chance to weigh in with US Justice Dept. on SC’s new voter photo ID law

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If you, or someone you know has a hard time getting a state issued photo ID, download a Dept. of Justice Comment Form. Fill it out online and print it out (this form can not be saved and must be printed). Sign it and follow the mailing instructions at the end of the form.

Anyone can comment directly to the Department of Justice through email to: vot1973c@usdoj.gov. Put in subject line: “2011-2495: Comment”. Or comments can be mailed to:
Chief, Voting Section, Civil Rights Division
Room 7254 – NWB, Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20530
(Include the submission # 2011-2495 at the top of your letter.)
Or fax comments to the Dept. of Justice at 202-616-9514 with the same heading.

Got questions? Call the SC Progressive Network at 803-808-3384.

Latest news from Network’s photo ID campaign

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On July 8, the SC Progressive Network held a second press conference on the photo ID law to clear up misconceptions repeated by the governor and lawmakers, and to invite the public to submit comments to the US Dept. of Justice, which is reviewing the new law to consider whether it abridges the minority vote.

See more photos from the media event here.

Below is a sample of the media coverage the press conference generated.

Group seeks those impacted by new SC voter ID law

JIM DAVENPORT, Associated Press
July 8, 2011
South Carolina voting rights advocates said Friday they are looking for voters who might not be able to have their votes counted next year under one of the nation’s toughest voter identification laws. The South Carolina Progressive Network is trying to identify some of the nearly 180,000 people who are now registered to vote but who lack the state- or federal-issued photographic identification called for under the new law. Those people would be able to cast provisional ballots, but would have to show the required identification within three days to have their votes counted. Read more:

Critics challenge ‘Voter ID’ plan

By GINA SMITH
The State
When Delores Freelon was born in 1952, her mother could not decide on a name for her. So the space on the birth certificate for a first name was left blank. In the decades since, the incomplete birth certificate did not prevent Freelon from getting her driver’s license and voter registration card in the various states she has lived, including Texas and Louisiana.
But a measure — already passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Nikki Haley — will create new hurdles for Freelon and others to vote. Read more:

Group aims to block voter ID law
Opponents push for rejection by U.S. Justice Dept.

BY YVONNE WENGER
The Post and Courier
COLUMBIA — The S.C. Progressive Network issued a warning Friday to the nearly 25,000 registered voters in the tri-county area without a state-issued photo ID: You could run into trouble the next time you go to the polls. The advocacy organization is urging the U.S. Department of Justice to reject a new South Carolina law that will require all voters to carry a picture ID to cast a ballot in future elections. The state’s Republican leadership pushed for the new law, citing a need to guard against voter fraud even though there has been no substantive proof of widespread voter fraud for years in the state. Read more:

Progressives Push to Stop Implementation of Voter ID Law

BY COREY HUTCHINS
Free Times
Five TV cameras, two reporters from The State, one from The Associated Press, a reporter from the Charleston Post & Courier and another from the South Carolina Radio Network, among others, swarmed around a podium in the lobby of the State House July 8, as South Carolina Progressive Network director Brett Bursey warned voters here that they might have trouble casting a ballot under a new state law. It comes during a time of a national pushback against such regulations.

Read more:

Governor, lawmakers mislead public on SC’s photo ID law, now under review at Justice Dept.

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SC Progressive Network to hold press conference to clear up misunderstanding and to invite public comment

The US Dept. of Justice is now receiving comments on South Carolina’s new photo ID law as it considers whether it abridges the minority vote. The SC Progressive Network will host a press conference at 11:45am on Friday, July 8, in the downstairs lobby of the State House to clear up public misunderstanding stemming from misinformation being repeated by the governor and GOP legislators.

The Network will share with reporters the only attachment supporting the state’s filing: a one-page letter from bill sponsor Rep. Alan Clemmons, who writes that he filed the bill because “It is an unspoken truth in South Carolina that election fraud exists.”

The Network, which for 15 years has been advocating voting rights, is making its case to the Dept. of Justice that our state’s ID law, the nation’s most restrictive, will suppress the vote, especially among seniors and the poor. In South Carolina, a birth certificate is required to get the state-issued card, and the law provides no exceptions, as do similar laws in other states.

It is clear that at least some of the estimated 200,000 registered SC voters who don’t have a photo ID will not be able to vote in the next election because they won’t have their papers in order.

The press conference will include the showing of a brief video clip of Gov. Nikki Haley signing the bill into law, where she defends the law by stating that a photo ID is necessary to buy Sudafed or to get on an airplane. To a reporters’ question about what sorts of ID are acceptable, Rep. Bobby Harrell says, “If you can fly with it (photo ID), you can vote with it.” That simply isn’t true.

At Friday’s press conference, two South Carolina voters will testify that, contrary to Gov. Haley and Rep. Harrell’s assertions, they can buy Sudafed and fly with the IDs they have; what they can’t do is vote in South Carolina.

The Progressive Network is collecting statements from people around the state who are having trouble meeting the state’s new ID requirements and will forward them to the Justice Department. Also, the public may make comments by email to: vot1973c@usdoj.gov. In the subject line put: “2011-2495: Comment”. Or comments may be faxed to: 202-616-9514.

For more information contact the SC Progressive Network at 803-808-3384 or network@scpronet.com. See background on the photo ID law and video clips of voters disenfranchised by the new law at SC Progressive Network.

Real patriots pay taxes

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By Scott Klinger and Holly Sklar

Some of our nation’s biggest corporations are planning a tax holiday and they want you to pick up the tab. Actually, you already pay for their routine tax avoidance through the use of tax havens in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and elsewhere. These accounting acrobatics cost the U.S. Treasury $100 billion a year. Now they want Congress to pass a special tax holiday for money they “repatriate” back to the United States.

There’s nothing patriotic about this repatriation being pushed by Google, Cisco, Pfizer and other companies in the Win America campaign. To sell the tax holiday, they claim it will produce a burst of jobs and investment.

In fact, Congress passed a “one-time-only” tax holiday in 2004 with similar promises. Instead, it produced a burst of shareholder dividends and stock buybacks, which goosed the pay of CEOs. Corporations laid off workers and shifted even more income and investment to offshore tax havens in the wake of the 2004 tax holiday.

“Why should we reward firms for successfully gaming the tax system when we in turn are called on to make up the missing tax revenues?” Edward Kleinbard, former chief of staff of Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, told Bloomberg. “Much of these earnings overseas are reaped from an enormous shell game: Firms move their taxable income from the U.S. and other major economies – where their customers and key employees are in reality located – to tax havens.”

A favorite accounting trick is transferring a patent from the U.S. parent company to a subsidiary – often a shell company – in a tax haven. Profits from the patent go largely untaxed offshore while the costs of development, marketing and management remain in the U.S. where they are taken as tax deductions. Pfizer was the largest beneficiary of the last tax holiday, bringing $37 billion back to the United States and paying just $1.7 billion in federal corporate income taxes. It laid off 10,000 American workers in the following months.

The U.S. is the world’s most profitable drug market and yet over the last three years, Pfizer – maker of Lipitor, Viagra and much more – has reported $7.9 billion in U.S. losses while claiming $37.8 billion in profits in the rest of the world. Pfizer, like the rest of Big Pharma, is heavily subsidized by taxpayer-funded research at the National Institutes of Health and elsewhere. It should not be rewarded with another tax holiday.

Bloomberg reported that Win America member “Google reduced its income taxes by $3.1 billion over three years by shifting income to Ireland, then the Netherlands, and ultimately to Bermuda.” What a corporate ingrate. Google would not exist without the Internet, and the Internet grew out of U.S. government research beginning in the 1960s. In the 1990s, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the Digital Library Initiative research at Stanford University that Larry Page and Sergey Brin, now billionaires, developed into Google. Brin was also supported by an NSF Graduate Student Fellowship.

Increasingly, U.S. multinational corporations want to benefit from government spending on education, infrastructure, research, health care and so on without paying for it. Today, large corporations pay, on average, 18 percent of their profits in federal income taxes and as a group contribute just 9 percent toward federal government bills – down from 32 percent in 1952.

The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation says a new tax holiday would cost $79 billion. A dozen national and state business organizations led by Business for Shared Prosperity recently wrote members of Congress urging them to oppose the tax holiday. The letter said, “When powerful large U.S. corporations avoid their fair share of taxes, they undermine U.S. competitiveness, contribute to the national debt and shift more of the tax burden to domestic businesses, especially small businesses that create most of the new jobs.”

There is no excuse for repeating a policy that’s a proven failure. It would be even worse this time around, as corporations would redouble their efforts to shift profits overseas in anticipation of the next tax holiday. Congress should close the tax loopholes that reward companies for transferring U.S. profits, jobs and investment abroad – not encourage them.

Real patriots pay their fair share of taxes. They don’t run out on the bill.

Scott Klinger is Director of Tax Policy and Holly Sklar is Executive Director of Business for Shared Prosperity. Mr. Klinger is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.

New photo ID law makes it harder to vote in South Carolina than anywhere in the country

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By Becci Robbins
SC Progressive Network

You could forgive voters for being confused about South Carolina’s photo ID law. Debate on the bill went on so long their eyes glazed over years ago. It’s hard to be as charitable to Gov. Nikki Haley, who twists the truth every time she defends the law she helped push through.

The governor argues that if we need a photo ID to buy Sudafed or to board a plane, we should need one to vote. Sounds reasonable, but neither pharmacies nor airlines require a state-specific ID, as this law does. And to get a SC photo ID you need to produce a birth certificate. For some people, that’s a problem.

Finally, we are number one! Sadly, it’s in voter suppression.

These documents aren’t enough for Delores Freelon to vote.

The National Conference of State Legislatures has identified seven states as having the most restrictive photo ID requirements for voting: Georgia, Kansas, Texas, Indiana, Wisconsin, Tennessee and South Carolina. All require voters to show a photo ID, but states vary in what kind and how hard it is to get.

  • In Georgia, if voters are already registered, they automatically get a new photo ID voter registration card.
  • In Kansas, voters can use a driver’s license from out of state, any accredited college ID, or government-issued public assistance cards. Voters over 65 may show expired ID.
  • In Texas, you can get ID to vote with your concealed weapons permit, your boating license, insurance policy or beautician’s license. Or you can vote a provisional ballot if you will incur fees in order to vote. Voters over 70 are exempt.
  • In Indiana, those without a photo ID get their provisional vote counted by claiming the fees to get the required documents were a burden.
  • In Wisconsin, voters can use any state driver’s license, Social Security card or student ID.
  • In Tennessee, a driver’s license from any state allows you to vote.
  • In South Carolina, voters must produce a birth certificate to get the state-issued photo ID required to vote. No exceptions. (If you vote a provisional ballot, that won’t count unless you present your state-issued photo ID within three days.)

Numbers are hard to project, but it is clear that some of the nearly 200,000 registered South Carolina voters who don’t have their papers in order will not be able to vote in the next election.

Even though there are no cases of the kind of fraud this law is purported to prevent, our cash-strapped state will spend at least the $700,000 supporters say it will cost to implement. Opponents say it will cost two to three times that much to educate poll workers and the public about the new law. The governor has said you can’t put a price on the sanctity of the vote.

She should tell that to Delores Freelon, a Columbia resident and registered voter who won’t be able to vote in the next election because she has a Louisiana driver’s license and can’t get her birth certificate from California in time. What about the sanctity of her vote? What about Ms. Kennedy in Sumter, whose birth certificate lists her first name as Baby Girl, meaning she’ll have to go to court to get her papers straight in order to get a photo ID? Or Larrie Butler, who was born at home in Calhoun County in 1926 and is being told he needs records from an elementary school that no longer exists in order to establish a birth certificate?

Stories like these are coming in from around the state. The SC Progressive Network, which for 15 years has been advocating for voting rights, is fielding calls from people with questions about the new law or having problems meeting the ID requirements.

The lucky ones will still get to vote, but only after jumping through hoops and paying fees at various state agencies. Some will have to amend their birth certificates by going to court, at considerable cost. People without a car, a computer or short on money are simply out of luck. The disenfranchised will be primarily seniors and the poor. Many of them will be people of color who have voted all their lives.

The Network is working to educate the public about the new law.

This quiet whittling away of the vote is no accident. It is, in fact, the point. It’s the pattern being repeated in GOP-controlled legislatures across the country.

In South Carolina, we have a brief chance to challenge this law. Because of our state’s history of disenfranchising people of color, ours is one of seven states that must get pre-clearance from the US Dept. of Justice (DOJ) before new voting laws can go into effect. Once the state attorney general files the case, DOJ has up to 60 days to consider whether the law suppresses the minority vote.

The SC Progressive Network is gathering statements to forward to DOJ documenting voters’ experiences. We need volunteers around the state to help find citizens who will have a hard time meeting the new voting requirements. If you want to help, call the Network at 803-808-3384 or see scpronet.com for details.

See video clips of Delores Freelon and Larrie Butler telling their stories.

Another casualty of the SC voter photo ID law

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Delores Freelon will not be able to vote in the next election because she can’t meet the requirements of the new photo ID law in time. She is one of nearly 200,000 South Carolina voters who don’t have a current, state-issued photo ID at risk of being disenfranchised. Please help us get this law thrown out. Call 803-808-3384 or see scpronet.com for details.