The Justice Department's rejection of South Carolina's voter ID law probably won't prevent other states from adopting similar measures, analysts say.

"Unfortunately, I don't think this is going to have a significant chilling effect," said Wendy Weiser, a voter ID opponent and lawyer at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University law school.

The South Carolina law would have required voters to show one of five government-issued IDs — such as a drivers license or passport — before casting a ballot.

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Most states can change their election laws without having to get advance approval from the federal government. And those that do need approval can turn to the courts if the Justice Department says no, noted David Bositis, an analyst with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

He said many states already have passed tougher voter ID laws or other measures — such as shortening early-voting days — that critics say have a discriminatory impact.


Read more at USA Today.

Speaking at a forum at Howard University on the effective use of social media, political communications experts urged college students and other young voters to transform their Facebook and Twitter contacts into powerful political networks in advance of the 2012 elections.

The non-partisan forum on Wednesday was convened by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Media and Technology Institute, in partnership with Howard's School of Communications, NAACP, National Action Network, Voto Latino, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Hip Hop Caucus, IMPACT, Politic365 and BET Networks. "African Americans in particular are over-represented on sites like Twitter," said political commentator Jamal Simmons. "Transforming the contacts to good works can make a significant impact if this year is anything like the last election when African Americans played a critical role in getting this president elected."

Read more at Yahoo! News.

Congressional map-drawers in states across the country are struggling to maintain majority-black congressional districts as African Americans move out of urban areas. And now, it appears plausible that one of those new districts could be won by a non-black candidate.

Former congresswoman Debbie Halvorson (D-Ill.) is trying to do what few before her have accomplished: win a majority-black district as a non-black candidate. She faces an ethically wounded Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) in a primary in a district that has been stretched from the South Side of Chicago far out into the Cook County suburbs and Will County, which Halvorson represented for one term before losing in 2010.

Only two majority-black districts have been won by a candidate who isn’t black in recent years. One is the Memphis-based district currently held by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.); the other was a New Orleans-based district briefly held by Rep. Joseph Cao (R-La.).

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David Bositis, an expert on race and politics at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and a friend of Jackson’s, said black voters are actually more apt to vote for white candidates than the inverse. It’s simply a matter, he said, of white candidates not running in majority-black districts.

“Contrary to what a lot of people think, black voters do tend to be very pragmatic,” Bositis said. “They look to elect somebody who is going to benefit them.”

Read more at The Washington Post.

Speaking at a forum at Howard University on the effective use of social media, leading experts on socioeconomics and political communications urged college students and other young voters to transform their Facebook and Twitter contacts into powerful political networks in advance of the 2012 elections.

The non-partisan forum on Wednesday was convened by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Media and Technology Institute, in partnership with Howard’s School of Communications , NAACP, National Action Network, Voto Latino, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Hip Hop Caucus and leading media outlets that target African Americans.
 
“African Americans in particular are over-represented on sites like Twitter,” said political commentator Jamal Simmons of The Raben Group. “Transforming the contacts to good works can make a significant impact if this year is anything like the last election when African Americans played a critical role in getting this president elected,” he added.

When Lucille Richmond cast her ballot for Barack Obama three years ago, she, like many African-Americans, embraced the historic opportunity to help elect the nation’s first black president.

But waiting in line at the county employment security commission last week, the 52-year-old grandmother - who lost two food preparation jobs and is searching for full-time work - can’t muster the will to support Obama for a second term.

“I don’t see what he’s done,’’ said Richmond, a Democrat. “I’m not even going to waste my time and vote.’’

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Obama’s defenders say there is a disconnect between the president’s genuine efforts on behalf of urban and disadvantaged populations and perceptions in the community. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a black think tank in Washington, said the president’s initiatives such as health care reform, the stimulus package that kept many public workers in their jobs, the extension of unemployment benefits, and grants to historically black colleges as well as increase in Pell grants benefited many African-Americans.

“If I were to criticize the Obama administration, it has a very good record with regards to African-Americans but it does not boast about it,’’ said David Bositis, senior political analyst.

Read more at The Boston Globe.

Herman Cain's assertion that blacks' overwhelming support of the Democratic Party was evidence of their having been "brainwashed" was the latest salvo in an intra-racial war of words over the state of black politics.

From President Barack Obama's recent run-ins with BET News and the Congressional Black Caucus, to attendees at a caucus conference questioning the racial consciousness of Cain and Republican Rep. Allen West because of their association with the tea party, many observers on both sides of the political aisle are trying to figure out what to make of all of the infighting.

Is there such a thing as a uniform black political agenda? Are conservatism and black cultural pride incompatible? Do blacks really behave as political lemmings, and could they benefit from embracing the Republican agenda?

Read more at the Indianapolis Recorder.

A year ago, Colorado's African-American community braced for the unimaginable: a legislature without a single black lawmaker for the first time in nearly six decades.

Denver's first black mayor, Wellington Webb, was among those who fretted about whether African-Americans would have a voice when the legislature convened in 2011.

But much has changed in the past 12 months.

Two blacks serve in the Colorado General Assembly.

Two blacks are now on the Denver City Council.

And Denver, with a black population of only 10 percent, just elected its second black mayor, Michael Hancock.

A year ago, it was Hancock, a city councilman at the time, who was upbeat despite worries from some in the black community.

"African-American candidates, no matter where they live, can appeal to voters because their issues are the same: education, job security, the economy," he said.

He soared past the white front-runner in the mayoral race, which came as no surprise to David Bositis​, a Beltway political analyst.

"When you're talking about a place like Colorado, its record in many respects is extraordinary," said Bositis, with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C. "The state has a long history of white voters supporting the candidate they believe is best."

Read more at The Denver Post.

African-Americans once were clustered so heavily in urban areas that the terms “Black” and “inner city” came to be used almost synonymously. According to the 2010 U.S. Census results, that time is history.
 
While Blacks have by no means vanished from cities, unprecedented numbers have headed for the suburbs or left the big cities of the North and headed south. As legislative districts are redrawn, nonpartisan groups and both political parties are watching how this unexpected migration will affect local and state elections.
 
Moreover, redistricting experts say the Black exodus from cities such as Detroit, Cleveland and Philadelphia contributed to placing Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania among the 10 states that will lose congressional seats because of reapportionment after the census. With Republican governors in 29 states, the GOP has greater influence over redistricting than Democrats.

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David Bositis, senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C., doesn’t expect the Black population decrease to have a huge impact on the city’s political scene.
 
“By and large, white voters have almost always had a major say in D.C. politics, so the fact that D.C. is becoming less Black isn’t really changing the politics,” Bositis says. “The exception is Marion Barry. He was the only politician in D.C. who was able to win without white support.” The former mayor is a City Council member.
 
Nationally, Black movement away from cities will eventually give minorities more political clout in areas where they settle, Bositis says. He adds, though, that this phenomenon will take time because the black and Latino population is on average younger than the white population.

Read more at The Skanner.

Many state legislatures are considering whether to improve election integrity by requiring voters to produce a photograph identification card (voter ID) when they vote at their polling places on Election Day. Georgia, Indiana, Texas, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Kansas have answered that question with a resounding “yes” by implementing such voter-ID laws. Those states understand that the United States has an unfortunate history of voter fraud and that requiring individuals to authenticate their identity at the polls is a fundamental and necessary component of ensuring the integrity of the election process.

Every individual who is eligible to vote should have the opportunity to do so. It is equally important, however, that the votes of eligible voters are not stolen or diluted by a fraudulent or bogus vote cast by an ineligible or imaginary voter. The evidence from academic studies and actual turnout in elections is also overwhelming that—contrary to the shrill claims of opponents—voter ID does not depress the turnout of voters, including minority, poor, and elderly voters.

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In the 2008 general election when President Barack Obama was elected, Georgia, with one of the strictest voter ID laws in the nation, had the largest turnout in its history—more than 4 million voters. Democratic turnout was up an astonishing 6.1 percentage points from the 2004 election when there was no photo ID requirement, the fifth largest increase of any state.

Overall turnout in Georgia went up 6.7 percentage points, the second highest increase in the country and a striking jump even in an election year when there was a general increase in turnout over the prior presidential election. The black share of the statewide vote increased from 25 percent in 2004 to 30 percent in 2008 according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. And according to Census Bureau surveys, 65 percent of the black voting-age population voted in the 2008 election compared to only 54.4 percent in 2004, an increase of over 10 percentage points.

Read more of this report at The Heritage Foundation.

Val Demings, the first African-American woman to serve as Orlando, Florida’s police chief, announced this week plans to run for the city’s 8th District congressional seat, now filled by freshman Republican Daniel Webster. She may first have to face off in a primary with the district’s former Rep. Alan Grayson (D), a victim of the voters’ Democratic fatigue during the 2010 midterm elections that gave House Republicans the majority. He also announced plans this week to attempt a return to Washington.

Demings, who served as Orlando police chief from December 2007 to May 2011, when she retired, said in an interview Thursday with WFTV.com, "We're dealing with some tough issues right now, and I want to be a part of developing solutions.” She also guaranteed that she would have the resources to run a competitive race. Demings has already won the support of Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who, the television station reports, “has access to people she will need to raise money.”

Orlando is in a state of transition and, like many cities around the nation, has experienced major population shifts. But instead of Blacks moving out, as has been the case in Chicago and Detroit, the city’s 2010 census shows that the state’s African-American population has surged by 250,000 people in the past 10 years, says David Bositis, senior research analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. The same is true of the area’s Latino population. These shifts could bolster Demings’s chances, because when Florida creates its new redistricting map, the 8th will likely become a majority-minority district. But it’s not yet clear whether it will be majority Black or majority Latino, since the state is still in the early stages of the redistricting process.

View the original article at BET.