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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has ruled that states can require voters to produce photo identification without violating their constitutional rights. The decision validates Republican-inspired voter ID laws. The court vote 6-3 to uphold Indiana's strict photo ID requirement. Democrats and civil rights groups say the law would deter poor, older and minority voters from casting ballots.

PHOTO ID Double standard on proposed voter ID? Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) co-introduced Senate Bill 473, which includes this text: "A dealer may purchase nonferrous scrap, a metal article or a proprietary article from any person over age 18 if the dealer does all of the following: 1) obtains photographic identification from the seller or deliverer . . . " This is the same Plale who voted not to allow the voter photo ID amendment to come to the Senate floor. Notice this measure requires a photo ID. I'd like to know why Plale believes people must show a...

Carded at polls: No photo ID, no vote By DEBORAH HASTINGS, AP National Writer1 hour, 40 minutes ago There's the poor, 32-year-old mother of seven who says it would cost her at least $50 to vote in person. There's also the 92-year-old woman who's voted for decades in the same polling place, but now can't vote there because she let her driver's license expire when her eyesight began to fail. These folks live in Indiana, home of the country's most restrictive photo-identification voter law. The U.S. Supreme Court is now scrutinizing whether that statute violates the first and 14th amendments,...

We're used to Democrats saying one thing and doing another, but the hypocrisy that will unfold at some local presidential caucus sites Saturday will surprise even hardened cynics. For decades, Democrats have stood against strengthening voter identification standards at polling sites. Modest identification reforms have been enacted in about half the states, with a handful of them requiring photo identification to prevent election fraud and uphold the integrity of balloting. Although Americans need photo ID to write checks, use credit cards, board airplanes and even collect welfare benefits, Democrats have argued that lower-income and minority citizens are less likely to...

If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds Indiana's harsh voter ID law, as its justices seem poised to do, hundreds of thousands of black Americans should march in protest. So should hundreds of thousands of Latino Americans. Native Americans, too. Political activists from across the ethnic spectrum should convene the biggest political demonstration since the historic March on Washington in 1963. Where is Al Sharpton when a genuinely critical issue comes along? Where's Jesse Jackson? The GOP-led campaign to pass stringent voter ID laws is a greater injustice than the prosecutions of the Jena Six, more significant than the incarceration of...

When I was young, I lived in Chicago. As a college student, I lived in Evanston, Ill., which borders Chicago on the north, and later, as a law student, I lived in the heart of the city itself. Richard J. Daley was the mayor, the Democratic Party ran the city, and vote fraud was accepted as a fact of life. One Election Day, I went to my Chicago precinct voting station, and, while I was in line to vote, a car pulled up outside and parked illegally, and six men got out. There was an ordinary looking driver and five...

Looks like the bedwetters have gotten themselves into quite an ironic pickle. The Supreme Court is deciding on a case of voter ID requirements in Indiana. By now you know the liberal arguments ... it disenfranchises the poor, the minorities, the elderly, blah blah blah. Well it looks like someone didn't do their homework. Faye Buis-Ewing is 72 years old. She has become a "poster child" for the disenfranchised voter that will be protected under a voting system with no ID requirements. But now we've discovered one minor problem. Not only is Faye registered to vote, but she is registered...

Back in the Jim Crow era of the Deep South, many would-be voters were prevented from exercising their rights because they had to pass a literacy test. The tests were enacted to prevent black residents from voting for the candidates of their choice. Because of the discriminatory nature of the tests, the whole system was tossed out after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The act required states to ensure that the voting process was fair and open to all Americans. No longer would people have to prove that they could read or write just so they...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A conservative majority of the Supreme Court appeared ready Wednesday to support an Indiana law requiring voters to show photo identification, despite concerns that it could deprive thousands of people of their right to vote. The Supreme Court is reviewing an Indiana law that requires voters to show a photo ID. At issue is whether state laws designed to stem voter fraud would disenfranchise large numbers of Americans who might lack proper identification -- many of them elderly, poor or minority voters. In what has become a highly partisan legal and political fight, the justices wrestled with...

The dispute over Indiana's voter identification law that is headed to the Supreme Court next week is as much a partisan political drama as a legal tussle. The mainly Republican backers of the law, including the Bush administration, say state-produced photo identification is a prudent measure to cut down on vote fraud - even though Indiana has never had a prosecution of the kind of fraud the law is supposed to prevent. The opponents, mainly Democrats, view voter ID a modern-day poll tax that disproportionately affects poor, minority and elderly voters - who tend to back Democrats. Yet, a federal...

Voter turnout among Democrats improved slightly last year in Indiana, despite a new law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, according to a new report that comes months before the Supreme Court hears a case challenging the law. Jeffrey D. Milyo, a professor at the University of Missouri, compared the 2006 midterm elections — the first since Indiana's law was enacted — to the 2002 elections and said voter turnout increased about two percentage points. He said the increase was consistent across counties with the highest percentage of Democrats. "A lot of the claims out there about...

El Paso County Clerk Bob Balink brings up an interesting point, but one that always raises political hackles. If the state is going to require that people be U.S. citizens in order to vote, then it should allow election officials to verify that citizenship, Balink argues. But if the state doesn't want to require a check of citizenship, then the law shouldn't even mention the word in its definition of eligibility. It would make sense, Balink says, to remove it. But Balink doesn't want to remove the requirement. He just wants to be able to check for citizenship. Or else,he...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Republican challenger Greg Ballard has scored a stunning upset in winning election for mayor of Indianapolis. After trailing in polling as recently as last month, Ballard finished his long uphill climb by beating two-term Democratic incumbent Bart Peterson. With 98% of the precincts counted, Ballard had an insurmountable lead of more than 6,000 votes -- a margin of 51% to 47%. Peterson has conceded the election, saying he called Ballard and congratulated him on his victory. Peterson also promised his full support and urged Democrats to rally around the new mayor. Meanwhile, Ballard is calling it a...

Anti-Photo ID Legislation Would Promote Election Fraud, Says Group For Release: November 5, 2007 Contact: David Almasi at (202) 543-4110 x11 or dalmasi@nationalcenter.org Washington, D.C. - Legislation introduced by Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) to prohibit photo ID requirements for voting in federal elections would promote election fraud, say members of the black leadership network Project 21. "Representative Ellison's proposal is fundamentally flawed and potentially harmful to the integrity of our democratic process," said Project 21 chairman Mychal Massie. "Why invite that which can only lead to unimaginable fraud and corruption?" Imposing existing Minnesota election law on a national scale, the...

In a challenge to the Bush administration, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., introduced legislation Wednesday that would ban photo identification as a requirement for voting in federal elections. By Kevin Diaz, Star Tribune Last update: November 01, 2007 – 9:37 AM WASHINGTON - In a challenge to the Bush administration, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., introduced legislation Wednesday that would ban photo identification as a requirement for voting in federal elections. Ellison's bill reflects the Minnesota practice, which does not require photo ID for the purpose of voter verification. Ellison has a companion bill that mirrors the state's law allowing eligible voters...

Requiring photo IDs to vote in federal elections would be banned under legislation introduced Wednesday by Rep. Keith Ellison, who said such requirements disenfranchise minorities, the poor, women, elderly and young people. "While photo IDs seem harmless, they are in fact the modern day poll tax," Ellison, D-Minn., said in a statement. Ellison, who serves on the Judiciary Committee, got an important backer for the bill, as the panel's chairman, Michigan Democrat John Conyers, signed on a co-sponsor. Ellison proposed the bill the day after the chief of the Justice Department's voting rights division, John Tanner, apologized at a House...

Today is the first Monday in October -- meaning the U.S. Supreme Court is back in session. At this point, though, there's little on the docket that would drastically alter the landscape for most Americans in terms of property rights, free speech or other issues involving individual liberty and freedom. But that could change if the court agrees to hear a challenge to a case striking down the District of Columbia's ban on handguns...

One of the more clever country song titles I ever heard was If the Phone Don’t Ring, You’ll Know It’s Me.That’s something like the predicament of searchers after the menace of voter fraud, who can’t seem to find much of it. The New York Times today reports that “scant evidence� exists of a significant problem.Voter fraud is the idea that individuals might vote multiple times, in multiple jurisdictions, or despite not being qualified. This is distinct from election fraud, which is corruption of broader voting or vote-counting processes. While voter fraud (and/or voter error) certainly happens, it is apparently on...

The U.S. Supreme Court has announced it will rule on whether or not photo identification can be required to vote. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey conducted during Election 2006 found that 77% of likely voters across the country believe that displaying a photo ID should be required to cast a vote. A Georgia survey conducted last week found that 84% of the state’s voters agree. The Supreme Court will rule on an Indiana case and consider a state law that was upheld by the Appeals Court. The 2005 law has been challenged by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court said on Tuesday it would decide whether voters can be required to show photo identification, a move that can limit participation of the elderly and poor in elections. The justices, acting ahead of next year's national elections, said they would review Indiana's voting law, which is considered one of the most restrictive in the country. It requires voters to present photo ID like a driver's license or passport. The 2005 law has been challenged by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Indiana Democratic Party, who charge it unfairly limits the right...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide whether voter identification laws unfairly deter the poor and minorities from voting, stepping into a contentious partisan issue in advance of the 2008 elections. The justices will hear arguments early next year in a challenge to an Indiana law that requires voters to present photo ID before casting their ballots. The state has defended the law as a way to combat voter fraud. The state Democratic party and civil rights groups complained that the law unfairly targets poor and minority voters, without any evidence that in-person voter fraud exists in Indiana....

The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide whether voter identification laws unfairly deter the poor and minorities from voting, stepping into a contentious partisan issue in advance of the 2008 elections. The justices will hear arguments early next year in a challenge to an Indiana law that requires voters to present photo ID before casting their ballots. The state has defended the law as a way to combat voter fraud. The state Democratic party and civil rights groups complained that the law unfairly targets poor and minority voters, without any evidence that in-person voter fraud exists in Indiana. The party...

Last week a federal judge in Georgia upheld a state law requiring photo identification to vote. Courts have upheld similar laws in Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi and Arizona. The trend is encouraging. And as U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy noted in his 159-page ruling, arguments that these laws disenfranchise minorities don't hold up to scrutiny. "Voters who lack photo ID undoubtedly exist somewhere," wrote Judge Murphy, "but the fact that plaintiffs, in spite of their efforts, have failed to uncover anyone 'who can attest to the fact that he/she will be prevented from voting' provides significant support for a conclusion that...

A federal judge in Rome has thrown out a lawsuit challenging Georgia's photo voter ID law. In a ruling issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy declined to issue an injunction suspending the law and also dismissed the case. The plaintiffs failed to prove that the 2006 law's photo ID requirement unduly burdens the right to vote, Murphy ruled.

A federal court upholds Arizona's voter I.D. law. The Phoenix judge found that citizenship counts when determining who has the right to vote, and that Arizona's voter-approved law does not conflict with federal law. "They have no conflict of us requesting that people show citizenship when they register to vote nor any conflict when we ask for ID at the polls," Brewer said. Secretary of State Jan Brewer said more than 99 percent of voters had no problem complying with the new law in the 2006 election. Prop. 200's requirements were enacted by voters in 2004.

Ga. to Require Voter ID in September Jul 31 12:56 PM US/Eastern By SHANNON McCAFFREY Associated Press Writer ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia voters will be required to show a photo ID at the polls for a special election in September, following several years of court and legislative battles, the secretary of state said Tuesday. Opponents claim the photo ID law will disenfranchise minorities, the poor and the elderly who don't have driver's licenses or other valid government-issued photo IDs. Supporters say it is needed to prevent voter fraud. A lawsuit contended the 2006 law was an undue burden on voters,...

LANSING, Mich. -- Voters will have to show photo identification or swear to their identity before being allowed to cast a ballot after the Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled the state's ID requirement is constitutional. The high court split along party lines in a 5-2 decision, with Republican justices voting to uphold the ID requirement and Democrats dissenting. The Michigan Democratic Party is weighing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. A state law passed in 1996 and amended in 2005 requires voters to show photo ID at the polls. Those without an ID can vote if they sign...

Mich. court upholds voter photo ID law By DAVID EGGERT, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago A state law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls is constitutional, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The court's five Republicans voted to uphold the law while two Democrats dissented. The issue has fiercely divided Democrats and Republicans for a decade. The law was passed in 1996 and renewed in 2005, but it never took effect because former Attorney General Frank Kelley, a Democrat, ruled it violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizens the right to...

King County Elections Director Sherril Huff has removed Duncan M. MacDonald, from the voter rolls. No, he is not a felon or been declared "non compos mentis" (second item). He is a Canine American. Jane Balogh, 66, had registered her dog to vote in April 2006 to protest a state voter-registration law passed the previous year that she contends makes it too easy for noncitizens to vote because the ID requirements are extremely lax.How lax are they? They are so lax that Balogh put her phone bill in Duncan's name, then used it as ID to register him as a...

The second time Duncan M. MacDonald sent in an absentee ballot, an election worker in Federal Way, Wash., called to ask about the paw print on the envelope. But it took three ballots before the prosecutor contacted the voting dog's owner. Jane Balogh said she registered the Australian shepherd-terrier mix to vote in protest of a 2005 state voter-registration law that she says makes it too easy for noncitizens to vote. She put her phone bill in Duncan's name, then used the phone bill as identification to register him as a voter. "I wasn't trying to do anything fraudulent. I...

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - A federal judge says Mississippi must have a party registration system and voter I-D laws in place by the summer of 2008. U-S District Judge W- Allen Pepper says political parties have a right to stop non-party members from voting in their primary elections. The lawsuit was filed in 2006 by plaintiffs wanting to stop non-Democrats from voting in Democratic primary elections. Pepper says ruling applies to all party primaries in Mississippi. Pepper's ruling was issued late yesterday (Friday). Plaintiffs attorney Ellis Turnage of Cleveland and Attorney General Jim Hood could not be reached for comment....

ATLANTA - The Georgia Supreme Court threw out a challenge Monday to the state's voter ID law, but sidestepped a decision on the law's validity by ruling that the plaintiff didn't have the legal standing to challenge the law. The court's unanimous opinion reversed a decision in September by Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford, who ruled the law was unconstitutional and an undue burden on voters. After that ruling, the State Election Board decided not to require voters to show a photo ID card to cast a ballot in the November elections. With a federal challenge to...

Against his doctor's advice, a stooped and feeble Sen. Mario Gallegos arrives at the Texas legislature each day, just to make sure lawmakers do not take up a bill requiring voters to show identification proving they are not illegal immigrants. And when the rigors of the job start to wear on the Democratic lawmaker, whose body is trying to reject a liver transplanted four months ago, he retires to a hospital-style bed — donated by a Republican colleague — in a room next to the Senate chamber. From there, he can be summoned at a moment's notice should his vote...

It's not unusual to find empty seats inside the senate chambers. What is unusual is to find a hospital bed. "As long as I'm here they can't pass it," Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, said in regards to House Bill 218 which would require anyone who wants to vote in Texas to present a valid ID. According to his doctors State Sen. Gallegos shouldn't even be in Austin. But, if he had followed their advice that would mean a win for the Republicans. "I'm the eleventh vote on the blockage of 218, the voter ID bill," Sen. Gallegos said. The only...

Gallegos legislating from bed near Senate despite warnings from his transplant doctors. By Mark Lisheron AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Tuesday, May 22, 2007 Despite a growing threat that his body will reject a transplanted liver, Sen. Mario Gallegos Jr. said Monday that he was determined to stay in the Senate long enough to block a bill that would require Texas voters to provide identification at the polls. "If not for voter ID, I wouldn't be here; that's how serious the issue is for me," said Gallegos, D-Houston. "It's very important for my community that we block this legislation." Gallegos, who spent most...

Voter ID appears dead in Senate Republicans still favor the bill. By Mark Lisheron AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Thursday, May 17, 2007 After a day of closed-door meetings in which not a single bill was considered, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on Wednesday pronounced all but dead in the Senate a measure that would require Texans to present identification before voting. The bill, which Senate Democrats oppose, will almost certainly not be considered before Wednesday's deadline for that chamber's bills to be passed, Dewhurst said. "Right now, only 20 members are willing to vote for this bill," he said. "Regrettably, unless somebody's absent,...

AUSTIN — A Senate committee has passed the controversial, partisan-charged voter identification bill, but Senate Democrats are vowing to do whatever it takes to block it. Their success will depend on whether Sen. Mario Gallegos Jr., D-Houston, who has missed most of the session recuperating from a liver transplant, can make it back to work for the vote. All 11 Senate Democrats are needed to block the bill from coming to the floor for debate, where the Republican majority easily can pass it. "I'll be here," Gallegos promised Tuesday from the Senate floor, where he put in a full day...

Mexican nationals living in the Bowling Green area will be able Saturday to apply for identification cards from their government, and apply for or renew passports. The Consulate of Mexico in Indianapolis, collaborating with the International Center of Bowling Green, will operate a mobile consulate Saturday at The Presbyterian Church, 1003 State St., beginning at 8 a.m. About 150 passports will be available, and about 550 consular identification cards, or matricula consulars, according to a joint press release from the International Center and Mexican consulate. �We are anticipating something in the neighborhood of 700 people,� said Matthew Covington, pastor of...

Mich. Supreme Court Weighs Requiring ID To VotePOSTED: 4:41 pm EST November 13, 2006 The state Supreme Court weighed Monday whether voters can be required to show photo identification at the polls, an issue that has divided Democrats and Republicans for a decade. At stake is the constitutionality of a 1996 state law, renewed last year, requiring voters to show photo ID to get a ballot. The law said that if voters don't have ID, they can sign an affidavit swearing to their identity and then vote. The law hasn't taken effect because former Attorney General Frank Kelley, a Democrat,...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Lawyers for the state and groups that opposed Ohio's voter identification rules claimed victory Wednesday in a settlement that suspends the law for absentee voters and clarifies and expands it for voting in person. The agreement clears up confusion in key areas and allows more citizens to vote, said Subodh Chandra, one of the lawyers who filed a federal lawsuit challenging the law. The plaintiffs, including the Service Employees International Union and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, had argued that county elections boards were disenfranchising voters by inconsistently applying the law. "We have never contended...

CINCINNATI - A federal appeals court on Sunday put on hold a decision that suspended Ohio's identification requirements for absentee voting, meaning voters applying for the early ballots must continue giving proof of their ID. The ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request by State Attorney General Jim Petro to stay an order issued Thursday. That was when U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley ruled on a lawsuit challenging Ohio's new law, which requires all voters to show proof of identification when casting a ballot. "The attorney general is very pleased that he was successful...

The liberal assault on voter ID laws. People in the good state of Missouri need photo identification to cash a check, board a plane or apply for food stamps. But the state Supreme Court has ruled that a photo ID requirement to vote is too great a burden on the elderly and the poor. Go figure. Public polls consistently show that an overwhelming majority of Americans--regardless of age, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status--favor voter ID laws. And nearly half of the nation's states have passed them. Yet a string of recent court decisions has blocked their implementation in some places,...

24 minutes ago: WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Friday that Arizona may require voters to provide photo IDs when they cast their ballots next month. The justices cautioned that they were not issuing a ruling on the constitutionality of Arizona's law. "As we have noted, the facts in these cases are hotly contested," the court said in an unsigned five-page order. The ruling merely allows the Nov. 7 election to proceed with the photo ID law in place. Federal courts still will have to resolve a lawsuit contending that the law will disenfranchise numerous voters, particularly the elderly and...

The Democrats are on fire this election season. They smell victory -- or perhaps that smell is Senator Harry Reid's land deals. Or could it be the smell of voter fraud? In their effort to gain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, they are doing anything and everything including their old standbys: registering the dead, minors and illegal aliens. In St. Louis, Missouri, Election Board officials say they've discovered at least 1,492 "potentially fraudulent" voter registration cards -- including three from dead people and one from a 16-year-old -- among the thousands pouring in before today's voter...

Congress is divided over how to ensure that only U.S. citizens vote each election, even though everyone accepts that only U.S. citizens should be voting. The bill is one of the priorities of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., when Congress returns after the election. Most people assume that residents in this country illegally will not try to vote. But a majority of House Republicans, aware that there are millions of illegal immigrants here, didn't accept that assumption. The House voted last month 228 to 196 to require that anyone planning to vote have both a government-issued photo ID, such...

PHOENIX -- The state will ask a justice of the nation's high court to let county election officials require voters to produce identification for next month's general election. Attorney General Terry Goddard said Tuesday legal papers will be given to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, possibly by the end of the week, asking him to void an order by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals barring the state from enforcing the voter ID provisions of Proposition 200 while a legal challenge to them works its way through federal court. Goddard's move came as the full appellate court refused Tuesday...

See for example this thread first. The word from the 9th Circus Court "No ID to vote" I report. They say it hurts more on those who are poor "...and VOTER FRAUD, too!" I retort

Arizona Prop 200 required ID for registration and voting. 9th Circuit, out of San Francisco, blocked the ID requirements of the proposition.

WASHINGTON - The Senate may act this week on a House-passed bill that would require both a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver's license, and proof of U.S. citizenship to vote. The Tennessee House delegation split along party lines on the bill last week, with Republicans favoring and Democrats opposing. Joining the Democrats are many interest groups representing the elderly, minorities and the disabled and others who say they might have trouble meeting the new requirements if the bill passes. But East Tennessee Republicans John J. Duncan Jr. of Knoxville and Zach Wamp of Chattanooga said in interviews that...

Senate Democrats on Friday said legislation that would require voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections was little more than a poll tax and urged Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to stop the bill. The measure, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last week largely along party lines, would require voters to present at the polls a photo identification that also proves citizenship for federal elections beginning in 2010. Republicans said proof of citizenship is needed to crack down on voter fraud and ensure illegal immigrants do not vote in U.S. elections. Democrats said...