SC photo ID voting could affect 178,000 voters
Posted: 01.27.2010 at 7:21 PM

COLUMBIA (AP) -- Democratic lawmakers filled boxes with amendments as they tried to stall efforts to require voters in South Carolina to have photo IDs with them when they vote.

Democrats said Wednesday the legislation will threaten the ability to vote for up to 178,175 people who don't have a state driver's license or ID card.

The debate stretched into the evening as senators discussed the first of more than 1,000 amendments.

Florida, Georgia and Indiana are the only three states that have a law similar to what South Carolina is proposing. They say people can only cast provisional ballots without photo IDs and those won't be counted unless voters prove later who they are.

Past South Carolina voting rights violations mean the U.S. Justice Department will have to approve the change.

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