* Research is now showing that documentary voter ID requirements reduce minority turnout. An EAC report conducted by Rutgers University found that in the 2004 election in states requiring voters to present documentation establishing their identity at the polls, Latinos were 10 percent less likely to vote, Asian-Americans 8.5 percent less likely to vote and African Americans 5.7 percent less likely to vote. A subsequent study by two University of Georgia professors finds that African-Americans in Georgia disproportionately lack drivers' licenses or state ID cards and would therefore be disenfranchised at higher rates than Whites by Georgia's proposed voter ID law, which von Spakovsky approved over the objection of 5 out of 6 career staff. *The details of the Texas redistricting plan are by now well-known. Tom Delay engineered a redistricting plan that, according to a memo prepared by Voting Section career staff, "illegally diluted Black and Hispanic voting power in two Congressional districts" and "eliminated several other districts in which minorities had a substantial, though not necessarily decisive, influence in elections." Von Spakovsky and other political appointees approved the plan nonetheless. Republicans picked up 5 Congressional seats. *Voter purges, as I discussed above, were a particular interest of von Spakovsky's. As Joe Rich explains to Greg Gordon: "'Aggressive purging of the voter rolls tends to have a disproportionate impact on voters who move frequently, live in cities and have names that are more likely to be incorrectly entered into databases.'" "Primarily, he [Rich] said, this means poor, minority voters." *Voter fraud, as Barnard College Professor Lori Minnite has documented, is an accusation often leveled at minority or other historically disadvantaged groups in order to shape the electorate for partisan advantage. Voter registration drives, a particularly important part of Black politics, were often targeted. This proved to be the case as partisan operatives in 2004, and again in 2006, hurled accusations and filed frivolous lawsuits against organizations conducting voter registration drives in minority communities. Now, of course, it has become clear that even US Attorneys were not insulated from the politics of voter fraud. US Attorney David Iglesias was fired for not pursuing charges against a voter registration worker in New Mexico while Bradley Schlozman bent the rules to rush an indictment of four voter registration workers in Kansas City (MO) just days before the election, issuing news releases that were quickly parroted by the Republican Party.The issue before the Senate Rules Committee is not where von Spakovsky stands on matters of law or policy but whether they will reward an individual whose career has been devoted to using state power to exclude people of color from the democratic process. Questions Regardless of whether von Spakovsky meets all the Committee's standards or passes all of its tests, he will certainly need to answer many questions. The Committee would benefit by probing to learn his role in removal of nine US attorneys, whether he helped facilitate the introduction of state voter ID bills, to what extend he pressured or cut deals with the EAC, and what his considerations were in enforcing the NVRA. And von Spakovsky has yet to answer for his decisions to pre-clear the Texas redistricting plan and the Georgia ID law. Finally, the Committee should seek to learn whether von Spakovsky was in communication with the White House and partisan operatives such as Mark (Thor) Hearne and Alex Vogel about voter fraud charges and investigations into voter registration organizations. Conclusion We are a society with clear divisions on issues of politics and policy. But one would hope that, 50 years after the Civil Rights movement, we could have a consensus that building a career on marginalizing minority voters is unacceptable. And for that reason, the Senate should carefully weigh von Spakovsky's nomination.