Virginia Democrats filed a lawsuit on June 11 challenging the state’s voter ID law, joining an effort backed by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton to overturn voting rules in several swing states ahead of the 2016 elections.
The Democratic Party of Virginia said in the lawsuit that the photo ID requirement, which was approved by the Republican-run legislature, would make it difficult for residents to vote.
“The commonwealth voted strongly to support Democrats in recent national elections. After Republicans determined they couldn’t change the minds of the electorate, they decided to change the makeup of the electorate instead by making it more difficult for Virginians to exercise their right to vote,” Susan Swecker, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, said in a statement.
Similar arguments have been raised in lawsuits challenging GOP-backed voter ID laws in presidential battleground states of Ohio and Wisconsin.
Opponents of voter ID laws claim they disproportionally stops blacks, Hispanics and poor Americans from voting. Proponents argue that the laws are a safeguard against voter fraud. But there has been scant evidence of either widespread voter fraud or that the laws cause widespread problems with access to voting.
“This is another politically-motivated lawsuit funded by George Soros and out of state interest groups who are seeking to manipulate the court system in order to benefit the Democratic Party,” said Virginia House Speaker William J. Howell.
Mr. Soros has pledged to spend as much as $5 million trying to overturn voter ID laws and other election rules ahead of next year’s elections.
