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Saturday, April 15, 2006

Ind. Decisions - Federal court upholds voter ID law [Updated]

"Law upheld: Voters need photo ID - Federal judge says plaintiffs failed to demonstrate hardship" is the headline to a front-page story by Richard D. Walton this morning in the Indianapolis Star. The 127-page opinion by federal (SD Ind.) Judge Sarah Evans Barker, Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita, is available here. Some quotes from the Star story:

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker upheld Indiana's stringent voter-identification law. Barker said plaintiffs, including the Indiana Democratic Party, failed to back up their contention that the ID law is unduly burdensome and would keep many people from casting ballots.

Barker wrote in her 126-page opinion that the opponents' arguments would require "the invalidation" not only of the photo ID statute, "but of significant portions of Indiana's election code which have previously passed Constitutional muster."

A number of states require photo identification for voters, but Indiana's law is considered among the most stringent because it offers few exceptions to the requirement.

The Democratic Party and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, a co-plaintiff, had argued that the law -- passed by the Republican-led legislature in 2005 to prevent voter fraud -- would particularly affect the elderly, minorities and people with disabilities.

They would bear the cost of obtaining the documentation needed to get state-issued ID cards, plaintiffs said, arguing that having to spend money to vote was the modern-day equivalent of the "poll tax" -- the Jim Crow-era method of keeping black people from voting.

But Barker wrote: "Despite apocalyptic assertions of wholesale voter disenfranchisement, plaintiffs have produced not a single piece of evidence of any identifiable registered voter who would be prevented from voting" because of the statute.

The judge had particular scorn for a report prepared by an expert hired by the Democrats that said 989,000 registered voters in Indiana do not possess a BMV-issued driver's license or photo ID.

Barker said she did not consider the report in her determination because she viewed the analysis and conclusions as "utterly incredible and unreliable." Among the report's numerous flaws, she said, was that it failed to account for Indiana's bloated voter rolls, called by a defense expert the most inflated in the nation.

The AP story, by Tom Davies, is available here. It includes a pointer to the Secretary of State's Voter ID page.

[Update] For links to earlier ILB entries on the voter photo-ID law, start with 1/3/06 and this 12/22/05 entry.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 15, 2006 07:03 AM
Posted to Ind Fed D.Ct. Decisions