Tag: voter ID cards
Posted on Wed May 14, 2008 at 11:17:52 AM EST
Tags: voter ID cards (all tags)
USA Today has an editorial explaining how Voter ID laws suppress turnout.
The photo ID laws in seven states are problematic enough, but now several states are also looking at ways to require voters to prove U.S. citizenship. Arizona does that already, and Missouri's legislature is debating a constitutional amendment that would pave the way for requiring voters to present a driver's license or a substitute when they vote. Obtaining such an ID in Missouri requires proof of citizenship, so voters would, in effect, have to prove their citizenship to cast ballots.
To be sure, only citizens should vote. But as with photo IDs, there's little evidence that voting by illegal immigrants is a problem. Most stay as far away from government officials as they can lest they be caught and deported, and fraudulent voting is a felony. Proof-of-citizenship requirements are likely to trap legal citizens who don't have their birth certificates and would have significant trouble getting them.
Hillary Clinton issued this statement Monday opposing Voter ID laws such as the one upheld by the Supreme Court in Indiana and those contemplated by Missouri and 19 other states.[More...]
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Posted on Thu Jan 10, 2008 at 01:50:00 AM EST
Tags: voter ID cards (all tags)
Bump and Update: The New York Times reports that the Justices seemed inclined to uphold voter ID laws.
Original Post (1/9/08):
Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Voter ID Card Cases
The Supreme Court today will hear oral arguments in the Indiana voter identification card cases.
The justices will hear diametrically opposite depictions of Indiana's toughest-in-the-nation voter identification law, which requires every voter to present a photo ID card.
Democrats and civil rights groups charge that the law is a Republican ploy to prevent thousands of poor, elderly and minority citizens from casting ballots. Republicans say that it won't prevent any qualified person from voting. Instead, they say, it guards against vote fraud and heightens public confidence in the integrity of elections.
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