Last week, Attorney General Alan Wilson again denied the U.S. Justice Department’s assessment that South Carolina’s controversial voter ID law unfairly discriminates against the poor and minorities.
The Republican attorney general was participating in a panel convened at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC to discuss the need to “ensure election integrity.” Wilson accused voter ID opponents of “twisting the facts and manipulate the data” about how the law would disenfranchise poor and elderly voters who may not have a photo ID:
In our state, we came to the understanding that there are 239,000 South Carolinians who had a voter registration card but no photo ID. Well, the Justice Department made a determination that 10% of that number were non-white and 8.4% of that number were white — a 1.6% disparity of how people could be negatively or adversely affected. The thing is, they said in their refusal to pre-clear South Carolina’s voter ID law that minorities were 20% more likely to be disenfranchised or have their vote suppressed. Not that there’s a 1.6% disparity — they came up with that 20% number because the number 10 is 20% higher than 8.4. There was a twisting of facts.
Either Wilson is doing some fact-twisting of his own, or he just doesn’t understand how percentages work. The Justice Department said 10 percent of South Carolina’s registered non-white voters lack IDs, and 8.4 percent of the registered white voters lack IDs. But because South Carolina has many more white voters than non-white voters, it’s that disparity that means a much higher proportion of non-white voters are disenfranchised.
Wilson went on to claim that further review by the Department of Motor Vehicles showed that many of those 239,000 supposedly-disenfranchised voters had simply moved out of the state without canceling their voter registration, so the numbers used by the Justice Department were inflated. However, he left out a very important detail — the DMV’s review showed that South Carolina’s voter ID law is even more discriminatory than had Wilson simply used the original numbers, as DMV Director Kevin Shwedo told lawmakers back in January:
Of the 27,000 remaining South Carolinians who legitimately lack IDs, according to Shwedo, about 50 percent are African-American and 45 percent are caucasian. But because South Carolina’s population includes over twice as many whites as blacks, the normalized numbers show that African-Americans are still much more likely to be affected by the law — which is exactly the Justice Department’s point.
Keep in mind, this admission was made by the guy who first made the “zombie voters” claim which soon turned out to be bogus. Though Shwedo quickly walked back his claim about the 953 supposedly-dead people who did not actually vote in South Carolina’s elections, Wilson has continues to make the fact-free claim — telling a national Fox News audience that “we know for a fact” dead people were voting.
Wilson also defended against criticism that voter ID is “a solution in search of a problem” by offering up a convoluted metaphor to explain why the Palmetto State should pass such an expensive and controversial law without any proof that it’s needed:
When you talk about having a solution in search of a problem, I thought about that comment this morning as I sat on the plane. As I boarded the plane, I bumped into the pilot and said hello to him. I started thinking, imagine if that pilot had said to me as I boarded the plane, ‘Based on my observations, I have a suspicious belief that this plane might crash based on the instrument panel readings.’ I can tell you right now I would want that pilot to have every tool and take as much time as he needed to prevent — to preemptively prevent — this plane from crashing and having any problems.
To date, South Carolina officials still have not produced evidence of even one case of voter fraud at the polls. To keep Wilson’s lighter-than-air metaphor going, if a pilot started warning about potential crashes based on nothing but the ravings of some airline version of Glenn Beck pseudoscience, that’s not a flight we want to be on either way — regardless of any potential mechanical trouble.
For another thing, we hope Wilson’s fictitious pilot would leave the tinkering up to the mechanics instead of messing with his plane engine himself. After all, this is real life — not the fantasy world of Lost.
LOST’s Capt. Frank Lapidus yells while fixing his airplane in the series finale. It’s really quite dramatic.
Alan Wilson and his GOP playmates must have either an orthopedic surgeon or a really good chiropractor on call 24/7. I mean, every time they have to defend what is, of course, their solution in search of a problem, they have to twist themselves into philosophical and political pretzels.
As the evidence against their claims of “rampant voter fraud” grows and grows, so does the realization that what we have known all along is true: The GOP has been engaged in a well-planned, well-coordinated national effort to suppress the vote of traditionally Democratic voters.
That which breathes life into democracy is the sanctity of the ballot box. Not just the count of ballots cast, but access to the ballots themselves. For a crowd given to non-stop pontificating about democracy and freedom, it is a bit troublesome—no, a lot troublesome—that Republicans such as WIlson would go to such lengths to obstruct qualified voters from excercising the most pivotal freedom guaranteed by a true democracy.
“Either Wilson is doing some fact-twisting of his own, or he just doesn’t understand how percentages work”
“The Justice Department said 10 percent of South Carolina’s registered non-white voters lack IDs, and 8.4 percent of the registered white voters lack IDs.”
10 – 8.4 = 1.6 which is equal to the difference in presentages in relation to the total. Which is it 20% ? or 1.6 % ?
Did Dufus get his presentages wrong too?
To keep the numbers simple If the population of non whites was say 25 and the whites were double that based on this quote “But because South Carolina’s population includes over twice as many whites as blacks” which would be 52 then 10% of 25 would = 2.5 peoples and 8.4 % of 52 would equal 4.3 peoples. Is the difference 20 % peoples or 1.7 people?
Or is Dufus still not understanding how precentages work?
“Of the 27,000 remaining South Carolinians who legitimately lack IDs, according to Shwedo, about 50 percent are African-American and 45 percent are caucasian.”
Dufus does more math. 50% of 27000 = 13500 45% = 12150 which is 1350 less than 27000 so when we start talking bout the numbers is it safe to say 1350 more African-Americans lack ID’s or 1350 less whites than African-Americans lack ID’s in reality we are only talking about 5% of 27000. And shoot what about the 1350 or 5% that are neither. If the total is 27000 then what in the heck is a normalized number? (“the normalized numbers show”)
But if I understand right, this conversation is about being disenfranchised, want to see some real disenfranchisement go to
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/26/executive-order-white-house-initiative-educational-excellence-african-am
Dufus is having trouble with basic arithmetic.
10 – 8.4 = 1.6 which is equal to the difference in presentages in relation to the total. Which is it 20% ? or 1.6 % ?
Did Dufus get his presentages wrong too?
10 – 8.4 does equal the difference in percentages, but because it is a difference, 1.6 is neither a percent nor a percentage.
Further explanation:
8.4 is 84% of, or 16% smaller than, 10.
10 is 119% of, or 19% larger than 8.4.
It is all in presentation regardless of for or against. Don’t believe it, watch this.
Run with sissors wrote:
and you say:
“Dufus is having trouble with basic arithmetic” along with
“10 – 8.4 = 1.6 which is equal to the difference in presentages” and “10 is 119% of, or 19% larger than 8.4″
Is this not also what Wilson was quoted as saying?
“Not that there’s a 1.6% disparity — they came up with that 20% number because the number 10 is 20% higher than 8.4″
And the title of this article is “Alan Wilson’s factually-challenged defense of SC’s voter ID law”
I think you’re making the math harder than it needs to be. 20% of 8.4 is 1.68, so 10 is almost exactly 20% more than 8.4. Wilson is confusing (accidentally or deliberately) percents with percentage points, two very different concepts.
Oh, never mind, I get what you’re saying now. Either way, Wilson is dead wrong.