Attorney General Eric Holder told an audience of black religious leaders that the U.S. Justice Department’s legal challenges to state voter identification laws are “not likely” to make elections “susceptible to fraud.”
“The recent wave of changes to state-level voter identification laws also has presented a number of problems requiring the department’s attention,” Holder said on Wednesday in a speech at the Congressional Black Caucus’ Faith Leaders Summit in conjunction with the Conference of National Black Churches Annual Consultation.
“In December we objected to South Carolina’s voter ID law, after finding — and this was based on the state’s own data, the data they sent to us — that the proposed change would place an unfair burden on non-white voters,” he said.
“This past March we objected to a photo ID requirement in Texas because it would have a disproportionate impact on Hispanic voters.” (RELATED: Nadler: Voter ID laws ‘a deliberate plot by conservatives’ to suppress votes)
Holder continued: “I also know firsthand what so many studies and assessments have shown: that making voter registration easier is not likely, by itself, to make our elections more susceptible to fraud. And while responsible parties on all sides of this debate have acknowledged that in-person voting fraud is uncommon, any allegation of its occurrence is and will continue to be taken seriously.”