NAACP vows to fight N.C. voter ID efforts

[struggle4progress]

By Rob Christensen
The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Critics of a proposed voter photo ID law vowed Thursday to launch a vigorous effort to fight the proposal, saying it amounted to a 21st-century version of the poll tax used to keep blacks from voting.

The state NAACP leads a coalition of groups that said they planned to contest a voter ID bill in the legislature even though it is clear that the Republican majority has the votes to pass it and that GOP Gov. Pat McCrory has said he will sign it.

“We will fight them in the courts, we will fight them in the streets, and voters will fight them by turning out and voting,” said Penda Hair, co-director of the Advancement Project, a major national civil rights group that is legally challenging voter ID laws across the country. She described North Carolina as “ground zero” in the national fight.

The Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, rejected Republican arguments that the requirement for a photo ID at the polls was designed to protect against voter fraud. He said that North Carolinians have voted for 237 years without requiring a photo ID and that the push for the law was a conservative backlash against increased black voter registration that grew out of the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama ...

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/08/3273895/naacp-vows-to-fight-nc-voter-id.html

[littlemissmartypants]

1. LMSP kicking...n/t