Romney Adviser & Bush Attorney General: It’s An ‘Undeniable Fact’ That Voter ID Can Disenfranchise People

During the primaries, Mitt Romney declared, “I like Voter ID laws by the way… more of them,” but one of his top advisers once admitted that it’s an “undeniable fact” such laws can disenfranchise voters.

Michael Mukasey, a top Romney legal adviser, former federal judge and former Attorney General, warned about voter ID’s potential to block eligible citizens from voting. In a 2008 speech, Mukasey noted “the undeniable fact that voter ID laws can burden some citizens’ right to vote” before threatening to use the Voting Rights Act to block state measures that “are used improperly to deny the right to vote,” a move current Attorney General Eric Holder has used in South Carolina and Texas.

At the same time, the Court acknowledged the undeniable fact that voter ID laws can burden some citizens’ right to vote. It is important for states to implement and administer such laws in a way that minimizes that possibility. And it is important for the Department to do its part to guard against that possibility. We will not hesitate to use the tools available to us — including the Voting Rights Act — if these laws, important though they may be, are used improperly to deny the right to vote.

Mukasey served as Attorney General in the Bush Administration from 2007 to 2009 and is currently serving as a co-chair of Romney’s Law Enforcement Advisory Group. When he joined the campaign, Romney declared that he is “honored to have” Mukasey’s “support and advice.”

Unfortunately, Romney doesn’t appear to be heeding Mukasey’s advice when it comes to potential voter disenfranchisement.

HT: Ari Berman.