On December 23, the U.S. Justice Department’s Voting Rights Section refused to pre-clear South Carolina’s new law, requiring voters at the polls to show a government photo-ID that hasn’t expired. South Carolina is one of the states covered by section five of the federal Voting Rights Act. Therefore, the state cannot change its election laws without either approval from the Justice Department, or approval by a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

The Justice Department is also considering whether to approve a similar new law in Texas.

Every week, the Americans Elect web page shows the new weekly national signature total, for all states combined. This week’s tally is 2,313,079, and increase of 60,042 signatures in the past week. The effort seems to be accelerating.

On December 22, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev gave his last “state of the nation” address. He was elected President in March 2008 and he is not seeking a second term in 2012. He said, “We need to give all active citizens the legal chance to participate in political life”, and then recommended that ballot access laws be eased.

Currently, presidential nominees of political parties need 2,000,000 signatures, and independent presidential candidates need 3,000,000. The Medvedev proposal would reduce these to 100,000 signatures for nominees of political parties, and 300,000 for independent presidential candidates.

If the rules pass, they won’t take effect in time for the 2012 election. Filing for that election closed on December 15, 2011 for independent presidential candidates, and on December 20, 2011, for the presidential nominees of parties. The 2012 presidential election is being held on March 4. See this story.