Feds to investigate Alabama DMV closures

The Obama administration is launching an investigation into the closure of 34 motor vehicle offices in Alabama, the Department of Transportation said Wednesday after Democrats painted the move as an effort to disenfranchise black voters.

“Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation is making it clear that Title VI is not optional and that we will work to make sure all of its components are enforced,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. “Driver License Offices offer essential services to the American people, including providing thousands in Alabama with a method of identification. It is critical that these services be free of discrimination, and serve the people of the state fairly and equally.”

{mosads}Alabama officials have said they are moving to close 31 more driver’s license offices to save money in an time of austere state budgets. They have accused the Obama administration of trying to score points in the upcoming presidential election by highlighting local DMV decisions. 

“In an ongoing attempt to politicize a resolved issue, the United States Department of Justice informed my office Tuesday of an impending investigation by the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) that is in its early stages and no findings have been made,” Alabama Gov. Roy Bentley (R) said in a statement.

Democrats, including the party’s presidential front-runner, Hillary Clinton, have blasted the move as a call back to the South’s Jim Crow past, noting that Alabama has enacted stringent voter identification laws as the same time as it moving to close DMV locations.  

“It is hard to believe that we are back having this same debate about whether or not every American gets to vote,” Clinton said in an October speech in Alabama, according to a report from the Birmingham News. 

“I’m not picking on Alabama, I just think we got to stop this before it gets out of control,” Clinton continued, according to the report. “Believe me, they won’t stop with rural counties and driver’s license offices, right?” 

Obama administration officials in the Transportation Department said Wednesday that they have a responsibility to ensure that the DMV closures in Alabama are compliant with federal law. 

“It is our obligation to ensure that recipients of federal funding are in compliance with federal laws that guarantee equal access and opportunity for all,” Transportation Departmental Civil Rights acting Director Stephanie Jones said. 

Bentley said Wednesday that the Obama administration has its facts wrong, however. 

“Despite what the Obama Administration claims, there were no driver license offices closed in Alabama,” he said. “Despite facts to the contrary, opportunistic politicians such as Hillary Clinton have politicized an Alabama budgeting issue to serve their own agenda, going so far as to travel to our state for the sole purpose of political pandering. 

“This USDOT investigation is nothing more than a weak attempt to embarrass the people of Alabama and exploit our state in the name of a political agenda,” Bentley continued. “I am confident that the USDOT investigation will find no basis for the claims of discrimination. It is time for the Obama Administration and aspiring national politicians to listen to facts, stop wasting taxpayers’ dollars and put the political agendas away.”