UPDATE 12/9/15: Great news! The U.S. Department of Transportation has launched an investigation into the closure or reduction in services at 34 drivers' license office in Alabama, "as part of the agency's responsibilities under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to make sure federal dollars going to state and local governments are used in a non-discriminatory fashion".
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First diaried here and here, the state of Alabama passed a very strict voter ID rule. Now they're closing drivers license bureaus, due to "budget cuts". Every single Alabama county in which African Americans are more than 75% of registered voters will have no offices anymore. Because Alabama requires voters to have photo ID in order to vote, this is a civil rights violation. Join me and my new organization Voter Rights Action in calling on the Department of Justice to investigate and put a stop to the voter suppression.
People are paying attention. The Anti-Defamation League has called on the Department of Justice to investigate, as has Congresswoman Sewell, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
...The State’s troubling action raises the obvious question of whether it was intended to disenfranchise communities of color. ADL is therefore urging the Department of Justice investigate these closings, and calls on Congress to pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act to fix the holes in the Voting Rights Act created after the Supreme Court effectively gutted the law two years ago.
Alabama was the original ground zero of the fight for the Voting Rights Act, due to the brutality against African-Americans in Selma and elsewhere. More recently the court case from Shelby County led to the Supreme Court gutting the VRA. More from The Nation.
...Alabama describes the closings as a cost-saving measure, but the impact has clear racial and political overtones.
Read this entire scathing editorial from AL.com:
...So Alabama closes 31 driver license offices. And while the cuts come across Alabama, they are deepest in the Black Belt. The harm is inflicted disproportionately on voters who happen to be black, and poor, in sparsely populated areas.
The Justice Department can put a stop to this, they are the best hope for upholding the rights of all Alabama voters. "Dena Iverson, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, confirmed that the department had received Sewell’s letter, declining to comment further." From MSNBC article. Please keep contacting the DOJ to keep pressure on. Call on the Department of Justice to investigate and end the voter suppression in Alabama.