Posted on 01/17/2018 2:28:37 PM PST by FreedomPoster
A federal judge in Alabama has thrown out a lawsuit against the state’s voter ID law, finding that the law doesn’t prevent anyone from voting because “nearly the entire population of registered voters in Alabama already possess a photo ID that can be used for voting.”
For those who don’t, obtaining a qualifying ID can be done “with little to no effort and no cost.”
In 2011, the Alabama legislature passed a photo ID requirement for both in-person and absentee voting. The law was enacted in an effort to strengthen voter confidence and to reduce the potential for voter fraud in the state.
The Alabama law accepts seven different types of ID, including an Alabama driver/non-driver’s license, a photo ID card issued by any state or the federal government, a U.S. passport, a student or employee ID, a military ID card, or a tribal ID card.
Voters can obtain a voter ID card from the state for free—something that as of fall of 2017, only 33 voters in the entire state had requested. And voters who need a birth or marriage certificate to get an ID can get those for free, too.
In addition, even if voters show up at a voting booth without an ID, they can still vote if two elections officials at the polling place positively identify them.
Those voting absentee are required to include a photocopy of their photo ID (in a separate envelope) when they mail in their ballot. Individuals without an ID can vote by provisional ballot, and that ballot will be counted if they show the local county registrar an ID by the Friday after the election.
Despite these voter-friendly provisions, the NAACP and other plaintiffs challenged the law claiming that it violated the Voting Rights Act and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. They alleged that it would disproportionally affect minority communities because minority voters hold an ID at a lesser rate than whites, and would also supposedly find it more difficult to obtain an ID than whites in Alabama.
But that is simply not the case. As Judge Scott Coogler pointed out, “[m]inorities do not have less opportunity to vote under Alabama’s Photo ID law, because everyone has the same opportunity to obtain an ID.” And obtaining an ID is very easy.
In fact, Coogler concluded that the provisions of the law are such that “[t]here is no person who is qualified to register to vote who cannot also get a photo ID.” The program to provide a free voter ID card is widely accessible to anyone who makes the effort to utilize it.
There is even a mobile ID unit that can travel to voters who lack transportation to get to an ID center. That mobile ID unit has “made more than 350 visits across the state” and visited every county.
Coogler argued that “the ‘impact’ of the law should not be measured by how many people lack a given ID at a given point in time, but by whether someone without an ID can easily get one.”
In this case, he found that the state had provided adequate accessibility and information to help voters— including minorities— obtain proper forms of ID.
The foolishness of this lawsuit was shown by the expert testimony in the case. The NAACP’s expert claimed only 1.37 percent of whites, 2.44 percent of blacks, and 2.29 percent of Hispanics lacked an acceptable ID.
So the plaintiffs’ case was based on the laughable claim that an almost negligible one-percentage point difference between whites, blacks, and Hispanics who lack an ID card was so discriminatory that it violated the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution.
By the way, it turned out that when a survey was done of that small percentage of minorities who supposedly didn’t have an ID, 80 of them were dead, 784 no longer lived at their registered address, and 1,933 questionnaires were returned as undeliverable.
Alabama’s expert determined that only 0.87 percent of whites, 1.44 percent of blacks, and 1.26 percent of Hispanics lack an ID. He also found that black and Hispanic voters without an ID were “actually more likely than white voters without photo IDs to live” closer to a county office where an ID could be obtained.
Coogler also discussed something that opponents of voter ID and other security measures and their friends in the media say doesn’t exist: Alabama’s documented history of voter fraud, including absentee ballot fraud, which this ID law was also intended to target.
According to Coogler, affidavits and courtroom testimony have established the following abuses in the state:
· absentee ballots cast in the names of dead people and people who have long since moved out of the county;
· absentee ballots mailed to unregistered voters;
· voter brokers following mail trucks and removing absentee ballots from mailboxes;
· intimidation of poor and elderly voters who are made to fear a cutoff of their governmental assistance from local politicians if they do not cooperate by handing over their absentee ballots;
· pressuring and solicitation of nursing home patients;
· vote buying at $5 and $10 apiece;
· bulk mailing of hundreds of absentee ballots by just a few individuals in some counties.
The judge mentioned criminal voter fraud prosecutions in Wilcox and Greene counties. The Greene County case is described in a Heritage Foundation case study from 2008 that detailed the conviction of 11 conspirators who had been fixing local elections for years. That case in particular shows how voter fraud threatens the right to free and fair elections and how those most often harmed are the poor and minorities. In addition to Greene County, The Heritage Foundation’s own voter fraud database shows numerous other convictions in the state for crimes ranging from vote buying to fraudulent use of absentee ballots to ineligible voting by an illegal alien.
The bottom line is that Alabama’s ID law for both in-person and absentee voting is constitutional and does not violate the Voting Rights Act.
Hans von Spakovsky is a Legal Fellow with the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation.
Semi-infinite, I would think. Until SCOTUS.
I’m sure it’ll get appealed further. The Dems seem to have unlimited money for that sort of thing.
everyone can vote in Alabama. More vote than register in Montgomery. Hell, you can vote more than once and get back on the bus!!
From the article - "In addition, even if voters show up at a voting booth without an ID, they can still vote if two elections officials at the polling place positively identify them."
That's a hint right there...
- Roll Tide -
Y'all don't think there's going to be more of this? The Democrat/Media Uniparty (with RINO Wing) will do anything to get and maintain power. Elections are just a sham now.
I had wondered what loophole had been crafted into it.
Poll watcher operations are needed everywhere.
“Allowing part-time residents (as many students are) to vote in local elections historically has caused a lot of problems.”
The major reason city governments of University towns are outright Liberal enclaves and counties containing those university communities continually are blue splotches on election maps.
The dead being a major Dimocrat constituency...
The Democrats don’t want some people to vote just so they can bitch and moan about “voter registration denial” plots.
Well, the state of Alabama and a sane judge just put the NAACP and its toadies down the crappy and flushed twice.
Amazing! A modern, federal judge decreed a lawful decision.
The RATS cannot win if things like proper ID is required to vote. Our two party system is based on fraud, and the RATS require it to overthrow our Constitutional government.
Hussein Obama will complain, RAT Secretary of State in other states will file lawsuits and ANTIFA will riot. Even the NFL players will take a knee in protest.
This must stop or the RATS will become irrelevant.
I bet he knows who Tua Tagovailoa is. :-)
Tell that to President Trump.
What is the world coming to?
Meaning what? Trump was elected before the Democrats went all-in on fraud. They assumed Hildebeast would win, so they didn’t try any of their little tricks.
You clearly don’t know the history of the Democrat Party. Watch “Gangs of New York” for an entertaining lesson. Also of interest is the history of Tammany Hall, Boss Tweed, George Washington Plunkett for more detail.
The party has been built on voter fraud. The one Aaron Burr engineered put Jefferson in the White House.
Good Lawd. I suppose that both parties can play that game. When parties charter convoys of buses full of people to vote in other states to sway the election to their party...and the resulting mayhem is to ugly to ignore...THEN laws will be passed to require ID in THAT state to vote like it should be NOW.
This whole business really $uck$!
sorry.
rant /off
I worked the polls twice here in upstate NY—DJT’s election in which my DEMONrat collegues shook their heads and clucked their tongues; and the most recent one this past November.
At the last election, apparently a DEMONrat called the Board of Elections DEMONrat Commissioner and lied saying that we (myself surrounded by two DEMONrat poll workers) said that a voter ID was required.
Of COURSE this was looked into IMMEDIATELY by the DEMONrat BOE Commissioner. I was questioned by said DEMONrat BOE Commish. (sigh)
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