Petitions aside, GOP killed Voter ID during 2009 session
The Mississippi Republican Party is going to great lengths to cloak itself as the party that wants to lead the state to a meaningful voter identification law. There’s a fundraiser this week in northeast Mississippi to raise money for what is being touted as the “Miss. GOP Voter ID initiative.”
What’s curious about the GOP full court press in support of a Voter ID ballot initiative is the fact that back in March, House Republicans accused Senate Republicans of gutting a Voter ID compromise bill they supported.
Back in March, state Sen. Merle Flowers led the Senate Elections Committee to kill the election reform bill that would have finally given Mississippi Voter ID. Flowers and his cohorts did so over the objections of Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant’s Senate Election’s Committee chairman Sen. Terry C. Burton, R-Newton.
Flowers joined with fellow GOP Sens. Billy Hewes, Joey Fillingane and Chris McDaniel to kill the election reform bill that House Republicans worked hard to craft.
State voters should support Voter ID, but they should not give the GOP a pass for killing it in 2009 for primarily craven political purposes.
Clarion-Ledger
9/2/9
