Campaigners hail courts in battle against US voter ID

A judge in Pennsylvania ruled on Tuesday to suspend a requirement that people must present a valid photo ID before being allowed to vote in the 6 November poll. The judge said he doubted the state could issue drivers’ licences or identity cards in time for everyone who needed one. Following recent similar decisions in Texas and Wisconsin, the focus of the voter ID debate now switches to South Carolina, and a legal battle between the Department of Justice and the state.

Opponents of the photo ID requirement say it disenfranchises minority groups, who are legal voters but far less likely to possess drivers’ licences or passports. Such voters are also more likely to vote for the Democratic party, analysts say, handing the Republicans an unfair advantage.

Federal officials blocked the rule last year, prompting an appeal by the state, supported by Nikki Haley, the state’s Republican governor, who said: “I continue to be disgusted and offended at the fact they think minorities don’t know how to go take a picture.

“This state and this country deserve the right to keep the integrity of the voter process. Until they show me any sort of reason why they think minorities are unable – physically unable – to go and do what any white person can do, I’m sorry, I’m going to continue to be offended.”

But civil rights leader Al Sharpton, speaking against at the law at a rally in Columbia, South Carolina, described it as a modern-day barrier to keep blacks from voting.

Meanwhile, Ben Jealous, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, urged South Carolina to follow the Pennsylvania ruling.

“As we look toward 2013, the Pennsylvania NAACP will take this battle from the courts to the legislature. We are confident that this state will not tolerate voter suppression,” he said.

Pennsylvania officials were last night mulling an appeal, arguing the new rules were necessary to clamp down on fraudulent voting in the key swing state. Justin Danhof, general counsel of the National Centre for Public Policy Research said the judge had “delivered a message that Pennsylvania’s voting booths are open for fraud”.

As the row over voter ID continued to swirl, a scandal over the registration of dead or nonexistent voters was picking up steam last night, disrupting Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s preparations for the first presidential debate with dent Barack Obama and leaving his senior campaign strategists scrambling for answers.

Strategic Allied Consulting, a firm hired by the Republicans in several key swing states to register voters for the election, is under criminal investigation in Florida for irregularities in election forms.

Now the controversy has spread to several other states, with officials in North Carolina, Nevada and Colorado looking into the company’s activities and the head of the government oversight committee in the House of Representatives launching his own inquiry.

Florida officials were said to have identified up to ten counties with problematic voter registrations, including similar signatures and phoney addresses.