Accuse GOP of trying to steal election.
Strong accusations from the NAACP regarding Texas' voter ID law, this as the state attorney general and Department of Justice square off in Washington. Convention goers in Houston Monday heard an earful of how Republicans are trying to steal the election.
"We are going through the greatest wave of legislative assaults on the right to vote in more than a century," said NAACP President Benjamin Jealous.
Connecticut Democratic Governor Dan Malloy also weighed-in. "Instead of making it easier for people to vote, there is a strategy. That strategy is to prevent people of color and older people from voting," Malloy said.
Supporters point to past successes of photo ID laws, such as in Georgia during the 2008 and 2010 elections. But Houston attorney Chad Dunn, who is among those arguing before a federal panel to stop the Texas law, says those elections were hotly contested with the last driven by Tea Party enthusiasm.
"Some people were engaged, they showed up and they voted in that election," Dunn told KTRH's Matt Patrick on Houston's Morning News. "But there were still many Americans in Georgia who were locked out of the polls because they didn't have a photo ID."
"There really are hundreds of thousands of Americans who live in Texas, people who are citizens, who aren't going to be able to vote if this law goes into effect," he says. "So I think it’s appropriate that the U.S. Supreme Court make the final decision."
That said, political insider Chris Begala says its Democrats who are trying to steal the election, adding the ongoing court battle favors President Barack Obama.
"You're going to see a slow moving legal process, appeals and appeals and appeals," says Begala. "I think you're going to see current voter laws that are in effect now, they will be in effect come November."
"The Obama administration is reaching out to Texas, Florida, Georgia and any other state that dare tries to institute any type of photo voter ID," he says. "That hurts their ability to cheat come November, because that's what they do, they cheat."
