Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Voter ID Laws.... Voter IDs laws have become a political flashpoint in whats gearing up to be another close election year. Supporters say the laws — which 30 states have now enacted in some form — are needed to combat voter fraud, while critics see them as a tactic to disenfranchise voters. Weve taken a step back to look at the facts behind the laws and break down the issues at the heart of the debate. So what are these laws? They are measures intended to ensure that a registered voter is who he says he is and not an impersonator trying to cast a ballot in someone elses name. The laws, most of which have been passed in the last several years, require that registered voters show ID before theyre allowed to vote. Exactly what they need to show varies. Some states require a government-issued photo, while in others a current utility bill or bank statement is sufficient. As a registered voter, I thought I always had to supply some form of ID during an election. Not quite. Per federal law, first-time voters who registered by mail must present a photo ID or copy of a current bill or bank statement. Some states generally advise voters bring some form of photo ID. But prior to the 2006 election, no state ever required a voter to produce a government-issued photo ID as a condition to voting. Indiana in 2006 became the first state to enact a strict photo ID law, a law that was upheld two years later by the U.S. Supreme Court. Why are these voter ID laws so strongly opposed? Voting law opponents contend these laws disproportionately affect elderly, minority and low-income groups that tend to vote Democratic. Obtaining photo ID can be costly and burdensome, with even free state ID requiring documents like a birth certificate that can cost up to $25 in some places. According to a study from NYUs Brennan Center, 11 percent of voting-age citizens lack necessary photo ID while many people in rural areas have trouble accessing ID offices. During closing arguments in a recent case over Texass voter ID law, a lawyer for the state brushed aside these obstacles as the reality to life of choosing to live in that part of Texas. Attorney General Eric Holder and others have compared the laws to a poll tax, in which Southern states during the Jim Crow era imposed voting fees, which discouraged blacks, and even some poor whites -- until the passage of grandfather clauses -- from voting. Given the sometimes costly steps required to obtain needed documents today, legal scholars argue that photo ID laws create a new financial barrier to the ballot box. Just how well-founded are fears of voter fraud? There have been only a small number of fraud cases resulting in a conviction. A New York Times analysis from 2007 identified 120 cases filed by the Justice Department over five years. These cases, many of which stemmed from mistakenly filled registration forms or misunderstanding over voter eligibility, resulted in 86 convictions. There are very few documented cases, said UC-Irvine professor and election law specialist Rick Hasen. When you do see election fraud, it invariably involves election officials taking steps to change election results or it involves absentee ballots which voter ID laws cant prevent, he said. An analysis by News21, a national investigative reporting project, identified 10 voter impersonation cases out of 2,068 alleged election fraud cases since 2000 – or one out of every 15 million prospective voters. One of the most vocal supporters of strict voter ID laws, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, told the Houston Chronicle earlier this month that his office has prosecuted about 50 cases of voter fraud in recent years. I know for a fact that voter fraud is real, that it must be stopped, and that voter id is one way to prevent cheating at the ballot box and ensure integrity in the electoral system, he told the paper. Abbotts office did not immediately respond to ProPublicas request for comment. How many voters might be turned away or dissuaded by the laws, and could they really affect the election? Its not clear. According to the Brennan Center, about 11 percent of U.S. citizens, or roughly 21 million citizens, dont have government-issued photo ID. This figure doesnt represent all voters likely to vote, just those eligible to vote. In late September, an analysis by Reuters and research firm Ipsos of data culled from 20,000 voter interviews found that those lacking proper ID were less likely to vote anyway, “regardless of state law changes.” Among those who said they were “certain to vote,” only 1 percent said they did not have proper ID while another 1 percent said they were uncertain whether they had the proper ID. The analysis also found that those who lack valid photo ID tended to be young people, those without college educations, Hispanics and the poor. State figures also can be hard to nail down. In Pennsylvania, nearly 760,000 registered voters, or 9.2 percent of the states 8.2 million voter base, dont own state-issued ID cards, according to an analysis of state records by the Philadelphia Inquirer. State officials, on the other hand, place this number at between 80,000 and 90,000. In Indiana and Georgia, states with the earliest versions of photo ID laws, about 1,300 provisional votes were discarded in the 2008 general election, later analysis has revealed. As for the potential effect on the election, one analysis by Nate Silver at the New York Times FiveThirtyEight blog estimates they could decrease voter turnout anywhere between 0.8 and 2.4 percent. It doesnt sound like a very wide margin, but it all depends on the electoral landscape. We dont know exactly how much these news laws will affect turnout or skew turnout in favor of Republicans, said Hasen, author of the recently released The Voting Wars: From Florida 2000 to the Next Election Meltdown. But theres no question that in a very close election, they could be enough to make a difference in the outcome. When did voter ID laws get passed — and which states have the strictest ones? The first such law was passed as early as 2003, but momentum has picked up in recent years. In 2011 alone, legislators in 34 states introduced bills requiring voters show photo ID — 14 of those states already had existing voter ID laws but lawmakers sought to toughen statutes, mainly to require proof of photo identification. The National Conference of State Legislatures has a helpful breakdown of states voter ID laws and how they vary. (National Conference of State Legislatures) (National Conference of State Legislatures)......COPIED AND PASTED BY...JLC
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 11:01:39 +0000
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