Former U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, who represented Alabama in Congress as a Democrat, stole the show at a Houston voter ID summit last weekend, according to a post at the right-leaning Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF). In a speech, Davis compared some of the worst abuses perpetrated on blacks during the Civil Rights Movement to the requirement that a voter offer photo ID before receiving a ballot.
Former Rep. Artur Davis.
“This is not a billy club,” Davis reportedly said, holding up a photo ID. “This is not a fire hose…. This is not Jim Crow….”
The speech came at a summit for True the Vote, which CFIF fellow Quin Hillyer described as “a growing, bipartisan, multi-racial, national movement to ensure that elections are conducted with integrity and without polling-place antagonism.” Brentin Mock, writing at TheNation.com, called the voter fraud issue True the Vote addresses a “hoax” and said the group is affiliated with Tea Party groups.
Hillyer described Davis’ speech as a “tour de force.”
“To call photo ID a degradation of human rights is not only something that is so fundamentally wrong, but is something my parents would not even recognize…. ” Davis reportedly said. “That [claim that ID requirements violate human rights] is the old tactic of telling us the very opposite of what it true.”
