Perdue joins Texas in voting rights case

Gov. Sonny Perdue has joined a Texas case headed for the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that Barack Obama’s electoral performance in Georgia is proof that the state no longer needs the federal scrutiny required by the Voting Rights Act.

In a friend-of-court brief filed last month, and released by the governor’s office on Wednesday, Perdue pointed out that while GOP nominee John McCain carried Georgia in November, Obama won more votes than did Democrat nominee John Kerry in 2004 or Al Gore in 2000.

“Congress’ insistence that Georgia has ‘a continuing legacy of racism’ … is nonsensical when an African-American candidate for president receives a greater percentage of the vote than his white predecessor candidates,” Perdue argued in the brief.

The brief was drawn up by Anne Lewis, deputy counsel for the state GOP, after Attorney General Thurbert Baker, a Democrat and an African-American, declined. Lewis did not charge for her work, said Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley.