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Thursday, April 14, 2011

Ind. Law - "Newly empowered GOP pushes voter ID"

John Gramlich, Stateline Staff Writer, in a lengthy, comprehensive story today, reports that:

Fresh off commanding electoral victories in November, Republican majorities in many state legislatures want to require voters to show photo identification at the polls, a move Democrats say is cynically designed to help the GOP during the next election cycle. * * *

Democrats claim the measures disenfranchise poor, elderly and minority voters who tend to vote Democratic but may not have appropriate photo ID. Republicans say the laws are necessary to prevent fraud, particularly when important statewide contests — such as the 2008 election for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota — can be decided by just hundreds of votes.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s photo ID law in 2008, providing a legal framework for other states to pass their own versions. But while only a few states followed Indiana’s lead after the ruling, the movement is gaining much more momentum now that Republicans have taken control or consolidated their power in dozens of statehouses. * * *

Beyond questions of voter fraud and disenfranchisement, one concern that could slow passage of photo ID laws this year is cost. Even in states where Republicans want to pass the legislation on principle, they would have to find a way to pay for the new rules, which must include the issuance of free photo IDs for those who may not possess them. The Supreme Court has ruled that the free IDs have to be available in order for the laws not to amount to a poll tax.

In two states that have had photo ID laws in place for several years, Georgia and Indiana, the cost of implementation has been $1.6 million and $10 million, respectively, experts in both states recently told Electionline, which, like Stateline, is a publication of the Pew Center on the States.

ILB: Here is the language from the 6-page Electionline report:
In Indiana, the number of free ID cards issued from 2007-2010 has been much higher than in Georgia and has cost the state more. In those four years the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles has issued 771,017 free photo IDs at a total cost of just over $10 million according to Jeremy D. Burton, Help America Vote Act outreach manager with the Indiana Secretary of State’s office.

He added the state used roughly $2.2 million HAVA dollars to educate the public and that other costs associated with the law were not tangible enough to calculate.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, the Tennesssean has this story today, headed "TN attorney general says voter ID bill is unconstitutional." Some quotes:
Legislation that supporters say will curb election fraud by requiring voters to prove their identity instead violates both Tennessee and the United States' constitutions, Attorney General Robert Cooper said in an opinion released Wednesday.

The problem can be fixed, but only if the state also offers IDs free of charge, he said.

“Without the state also providing the ability to obtain a free photo identification card, (the bill) unduly burdens the right to vote and constitutes a poll tax,” the attorney general said.

Democratic leaders requested the opinion before a vote this morning in which House lawmakers have been expected to approve the measure. The opinion sets up a likely floor fight between Republicans who want to pass the bill and Democrats who want to hold it up until it is fixed.

“I would hope we wouldn’t vote for anything unconstitutional,” House Democratic Leader Craig Fitzhugh said.

More from the story:
The attorney general's office based its opinion on similar laws passed in Georgia and Indiana. Courts struck down Georgia's initial voter law on the ground that it imposed an extra cost on voting, but they upheld one passed in Indiana that called for free IDs to be available at state offices where driver's licenses are issued. Georgia's law was later rewritten to offer the same service.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 14, 2011 08:59 AM
Posted to Indiana Law