Justice department blocks South Carolina voter ID Law

U.S. Attorney General., Eric Holder. PHOTO/File

The Obama administration on Friday blocked a new South Carolina law that requires voters to have photo identification because of concerns it would hurt minorities’ ability to cast a ballot.

Republican Gov. Nikki Haley in May signed into law a measure that says voters must show a driver’s license, passport or military identification along with their voter registration card in order to vote.

“The state’s data demonstrate that non-white voters are both significantly burdened” by the law and “disproportionately unlikely to possess the most common types of photo identification” needed, Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said in a letter to the state.

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