Photo ID Voting Requirement Under Scrutiny in Supreme Court
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a case that will determine whether an Indiana law requiring all voters to present a government-issued photo identification before voting is unconstitutional. Opponents of the law argue that it unfairly impacts elderly people of color and the poor.
January 9th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
What a bunch of nonsense. Voters should be able to prove their identity at the polls, to say otherwise is foolish. Each registered voter gets to vote one time. The only way that we can guarantee that a) are legally registered b) are who they say they are and c) don’t vote multiple times is to prove who they are.
If voters aren’t willing to pony up the 10 or so dollars (government ID’s are free in many states) then they really don’t care. If you want to make it a minority issue, the NAACP’s website had guidance for African Americans to “Do carry identification at all times and be prepared to produce it.” ( http://www.naacp.org/legal/resources/411onfiveo/) It is hypocritical that they advise all Black people to carry ID at all times but are against laws that would require voters to show ID’s at polling places.
“In the state of Indiana it is particularly difficult to get an ID. An original birth certificate and other supplementary materials must be presented.”
Boo hoo. So you have to prove your identity to get a card that verifies your identity. How does this not make sense?
“Some people, particularly the elderly living in nursing homes and homeless individuals, don’t have that documentation and the additional burden of cost and time is placed on them.”
How many homeless people actually vote? If they do vote, how do they collect accurate information on candidates? Pretty weak case against voter ID’s here. Do people in nursing homes vote? If they do then I’m willing to bet that a family member not in a nursing home can find documentation to vouch for their identity. Chances are they had a driver’s license at some point and it is being stored somewhere.
“As much as 10 percent of the nation’s voting-age citizens — more than 20 million people — do not have a government-issued ID, according to phone surveys and studies cited in a Los Angeles Times report.”
Who are these 20 million people who don’t have ID’s? You can’t legally drive, hold a job or otherwise prove your identity in other ways without a driver’s license, state id or birth certificate. If they are of such low value to society that they have no need of an ID then they probably shouldn’t be voting anyway.