South Carolina voter ID law blocked until 2013

By David Ingram

WASHINGTON | Wed Oct 10, 2012 6:36pm EDT

(Reuters) - A federal court ruled on Wednesday that South Carolina may not implement a photo ID law for voters until 2013, in the latest setback for a mainly Republican effort to establish identification rules in several states before the November 6 elections.

South Carolina joined Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin as states with voter ID laws that have been blocked or deferred by state or federal judges.

A three-judge panel in U.S. District Court in Washington said unanimously that South Carolina's law would not discriminate against racial minorities. The U.S. Justice Department had argued the measure ran afoul of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a landmark of the civil rights movement.

But the judges said there was too little time to put the law into effect this year, and added they might have blocked the law entirely if South Carolina had not pledged to give wide leeway to voters who cannot comply ...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/10/us-usa-campaign-south-carolina-idUSBRE89916820121010