WASHINGTON — The federal trial over South Carolina’s voter identification law got under way Monday with a state senator insisting his work on the law was aimed at fighting fraud and instilling public confidence in the election system.

During morning testimony, state Sen. George “Chip” Campsen, III cited examples of fraud that he took into consideration while drafting early versions of South Carolina’s law.

These included vote buying, voter rolls indicating a woman who showed up at the polls had already voted, and press reports of voters being registered in both South Carolina and North Carolina.

But under questioning from Justice Department attorney Anna Baldwin, Campsen, a Republican, said the examples he gave did not involve the type of fraud that requiring photo identification would address.

“None of the examples you gave in your testimony involved incidents of impersonation?” Baldwin asked.

“Correct,” Campsen answered. He also said he could not find cases of voter impersonation in South Carolina, but added that the state lacks the tools to root them out.

The Justice Department rejected South Carolina’s law, passed last year, which requires specific photo identification be shown in order to vote. The department decided the law violates Section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voters. South Carolina’s voter photo ID law was subject to approval from the Justice Department because of its history of racial discrimination.