This evening’s “The Power Hour” on 1230 AM radio has a whole new angle from its regular shows: instead of discussing how South Carolinians’ rights are being tangled into yet another knot, special guest Lee Walter Jenkins will tell how one just got untied.

Beginning at 6 p.m., Jenkins will join guest-host David Calef to talk about the recent block to a questionable law that alienated many voters.

Columbia listeners can tune-in to WOIC 1230 AM, and others across the country can listen from the station’s website. (Click here and then use the “listen live” link on that page.)

On Dec. 23, the Dept. of Justice submitted notice to the state that its Voter ID law, enacted in May, could not be used. The new law would prevent almost a quarter-million voters from participating in elections, DOJ noted in its review, and would also disproportionately affect minority citizens.

Jenkins’ part of the state would have been far more affected, too. Marion County, whose Democratic Party he serves as chair, is dominantly African-American in population.

In its notice to the state Attorney General’s office, DOJ wrote “minority registered voters are about 20 percent more likely than white registered voters to lack DMV-issued identification.”

Calef, whose regular “Inside Politics” show airs Sundays at 6 p.m. on WOIC, is filling in for regular “The Power Hour” host Lopez Martinez.

Earlier this year, Jenkins was a dark-horse candidate for chair of the state Democratic Party. 

South Carolina's recent "Voter ID" law has been rejected by the U.S. Dept. of Justice.

In letter issued today, Asst. Sec. Thomas E. Perez explained that the state could not enforce the law because it would unfairly affect minorities, restricting their legal right to vote. (Full letter attached below.)

As a result, voters in the state will only need to present a voter registration card in order to vote. A drivers’ license or other state ID can still be used.

Signed into law by Gov. Nikki Haley in early May, the bill required all voters to show a state-issued picture ID at the polls in order to participate in elections. However, and as the state legislature itself admitted at that time, 178,000 currently registered voters were without such photo identification. As DOJ researched the situation further, the number rose to 239,333.

Not only would the Voter ID law have alienated college students, seniors and disabled citizens, but it would disproportionately affect minorities, who “constituted 34.2% of registered voters who did not have the requisite DMV-issued identification to vote,” DOJ said in its letter to the state.

“(M)inority registered voters are about 20% more likely than white registered voters to lack DMV-issued identification,” Perez wrote.

Voters attempting to acquire photo IDs faced difficulties, too. Included in reported stories to date:

• A senior citizen and registered voter was denied renewal of his driver’s license. Larry Butler was affronted with requests for additional documentation, including birth certificate and school records, all of which were refused when provided. Butler was born in a rural part of the state that didn’t provide birth certificates with a state seal. Butler also said Dept. of Motor Vehicles challenged his legal name. 
  
• Another South Carolina native who recently moved back to her home state was denied a driver’s license. Delores Freelon’s ID from her previous state of residence was rejected, even though other state offices including the Medicaid office had already accepted it. Her South Carolina birth certificate was refused, too, because her parents were immediately undecided on her first name.  Only “baby girl” was listed on the official document, a common practice in state records at that time. 
  
• Another senior took up Gov. Haley’s televised offer for aid in getting a copy of his birth certificate. When he called the governor’s office, staff told Robert Tucker they didn’t know what he was talking about, and refused to help. 
  
•  A resident who recently moved back to her birth-state of South Carolina was at first denied a driver’s license, and only given one after challenging DMV staff. She provided her birth certificate, military records, Social Security card and even her new motor vehicle registration, which showed her name and current address.  She was continually told to bring more records, however. Only after arguing with DMV was she allowed to receive a new license. 

DOJ had attempted to work with the state in its required review of the law, but didn’t get much cooperation, it says. South Carolina submitted its “Voter ID” law for review in late June, including data from the State Election Commission on the number of registered voters in danger of alienation. When DOJ requested additional information within a 60-day period, it only received response 55 days later, and from an entirely different state office (Dept. of Motor Vehicles) that challenged the validity of SEC’s data.

“We followed up with you immediately by telephone,” Perez wrote, “but the state offered no additional documentation.”

The potential rejection of the Voter ID law was already established. In August, DOJ stated the new law couldn’t be enforced in the November elections, and due to the state’s failure to issue new IDs in timely fashion. Earlier this month, Atty. Gen. Eric Holder spoke skeptically of the law.

South Carolina had already been rated last in voter accessibility earlier this year.

After signing a controversial Voter ID bill into law earlier this year, South Carolina’s Gov. Nikki Haley has been quick to rebut criticism with promises of aid.

"Find me those people who think that this is invading their rights — find — and I will go take them to the DMV myself and help them get that picture ID,” Haley told Greenville’s FOX Carolina.

And just the other day Robert Tucker, a senior Carolinian and Army veteran, did just that.

But to no avail. He called the governor’s office, only to speak to staff who didn’t know what Tucker was talking about.  Haley’s office declined to aid the senior.

Tucker, 76, can’t access his birth certificate.

(posted on youtube by SCDemParty)

“I’m very disappointed the governor won’t help me with what I need to vote,” Tucker says reservedly.

Dick Harpootlian doesn’t hold back in his criticism, however. "Republican Nikki Haley has proved once again unable to tell the truth,” the chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party says.

“Whether she is misstating her job record, her own employment record or lying to Army veterans like Robert Tucker, it's obvious she just doesn't have it in her to tell the truth.  She would rather climb a tree to tell a lie than stand on the ground and tell the truth."

In May, Haley signed H.3003 into law, requiring all voters to present state-issued photo identification at the polls in order to participate in elections.

Over 178,000 registered voters in the state do not have a photo ID, however – that’s seven percent of South Carolina voters who could be disenfranchised next election day.

Laws that require presentation of government-issued photo ID in order to vote are going into effect in other states, as well.

Sixteen U.S. senators recently requested the Dept. of Justice to investigate the potential illegality of these voter ID laws.

“Studies have shown that as high as 11% of eligible voters nationwide do not have a government-issued ID.  This percentage is higher for seniors, racial minorities, low-income voters and students,” Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo) wrote in his letter to Attorney Gen. Eric Holder.

There is no record of voter impersonation in South Carolina or of any other type of false-voting situation that photo identification could prevent.

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Also read:
Potential loophole to Voter ID proposal, but challenge still needed, says SC ProNet
Colbert Report on Voter ID laws
Voter ID at the DMV in Wisconsin (and what it could mean in South Carolina)