Posted on 07/18/2006 2:30:04 PM PDT by oxcart
LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan Democratic Party, the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus and the Democratic caucuses in the state House and Senate filed a friend-of-the-court brief Tuesday in a case that could decide whether Michigan can require voters to show photo identification at the polls.
The Michigan Supreme Court in April voted 5-2 to issue an advisory opinion on the constitutionality of a 1997 state law requiring voters to show photo identification to get a ballot. A court spokeswoman said the ruling will be binding, although it could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Former Attorney General Frank Kelley, a Democrat, issued an opinion nine years ago that the law violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees U.S. citizens the right to vote.
Opponents of the law say the requirement would keep poor people, non-drivers and others away from the polls. They cite figures showing that about 370,000 of the state's registered voters do not have a driver's license or state ID card.
But supporters say the law is needed to prevent election fraud. The U.S. Justice Department, for example, has been investigating allegations that Detroit votes were cast last year in the names of dead people.
Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis supports the requirement, noting that Indiana recently began requiring photo ID. Although Democrats in that state are challenging the law and say they received hundreds of complaints about the new requirement, Anuzis said that can largely be chalked up to the learning curve.
"From the things that I read, apparently things went very well. There weren't any hitches," he said.
Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, the Detroit chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, Kelley and several county clerks also are filing briefs with the court opposing the photo ID requirement.
They say the move to require photo ID is aimed at keeping poor and minority voters, who tend to support Democratic candidates, from being able to vote, and they say worries about fraud are overblown.
"Voter impersonation at the polls - which is the only form of electoral fraud addressed by the photo identification requirement - is a nonexistent problem," the Michigan Democratic Party wrote in its brief.
Party Chairman Mark Brewer said in a news release that "this Republican law will have the same practical result as a poll tax; it will lead to the suppression of the vote of the poor, racial and ethnic minorities, and elderly and disabled voters."
"In an election year the people of Michigan need to be especially vigilant in ensuring all election-oriented efforts are not a partisan power grab," he added.
But Anuzis rejected those arguments, noting that the House already has passed a bill offering anyone who couldn't afford to pay $10 fee to obtain a state ID card the chance to get one for free. The bill now is before the Senate Committee on Government Operations.
"If you want to vote, you can get an ID card. It doesn't keep anyone away from the polls," he said.
The high court has asked Republican Attorney General Mike Cox to submit separate briefs, one arguing that the law is constitutional and the other arguing it is unconstitutional. The court also invited the state Bureau of Elections, Michigan Democratic Party and Michigan Republican Party to file arguments. It has yet to hear oral arguments in the case.
Supreme Court spokeswoman Marcia McBrien has said the court will decide whether the state law is constitutional on its face. She added that parties could challenge the state law in federal court.
Can't wait to read them. I'll stock in some cheese to go with the fine whine I expect to find there.
My great grandmother never drove a car in her life but she managed to vote every single time. She also had a Michigan ID for any other reasons that might arise.
And from the same state...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1668029/posts
OK, I owe DU an apology: Karl Rove DOES have a mind control device.
I love watching the Rats keep coming up with new excuses as to why you can't have voter ID. I doubt that there is a single person who actually believes that their opposition has any other purpose than to perpetuate vote fraud. But even the Rats can't come right out and say that they need to keep dead people on the voter registration lists.
Some people go about life oblivous to what's happening. A friend of mine has a condo, and any time there's something like the building being painted or a furnace filter inspection, there's always a certain percentage of the owners who are taken by surprise despite weeks of written notices, newsletters, etc. And they're always pissed off and insist that nobody ever warned them. No doubt the same phenomenon is at work in the cases where they show up at the poll and are shocked that ID is demanded.
Does this include the 100,000 or so dead Democrat voters????
We are proud to show our ID's in Montana!
I am so confused. Here in Georgia we passed a voter id law. Some judge overruled it and then the law was tinkered with and again GA passed a voter id law. The same judge then overruled it again and declared it was invalid for today's primary and the November election.
I voted in the primary today and was asked for id.
Is it just Democrats and the black population as a whole that are not required to show ID?
Who needs an ID? For that matter who needs voters?
http://www.nationalreview.com/battleground/battleground.asp
"Craziest thing I've ever seen," said one poll watcher. "They had 100 tables and just five poll watchers trying to monitor them. Every table had a pile of empty ballots. If the machine rejected a ballot, the workers would just take a fresh ballot, fill it in the way they thought the voter wanted (Detroit voted heavily for Kerry), and then put THAT ballot through the machine." The poll watcher also reported unsigned ballots being counted in the machines, a violation of absentee procedures.
Next, we will okay autopsy photos for their Voter ID's?????
No, we also don't require ID's for illegal alien voters, nation-wide.....
Maybe it was all those dead people trying to use their cold fingers on the new Diebold touch-screen machines that caused the long lines in Ohio.
The ACLU is suing Missouri as well. Saint Louis Mayor, Francis Slay, said it was unfair to demand inner city folk have ID. Im paraphrasing here, I dont know the exact quote. Voting is a responsibility. That means if you are responsible enough to vote, you should be responsible enough to have friggin ID..
>>...which guarantees U.S. citizens the right to vote. <<
Yup. And all you gotta do to vote is PROVE you are a citizen. To allow otherwise actually nullifies the REAL citizens votes, thereby violating the ammendment.
How about senile people and people who have moved to another state? Voter fraud is rampant in Maryland. No voter ID, almost no purge of voter registration rolls, early voting anywhere you want. It's scary.
>Is it just Democrats and the black population as a whole that are not required to show ID?<
Everyone in Georgia is required to show ID just not a picture ID.I voted about 2:30 and the guy checing ID's said no one offered anything but a picture ID.All driver's licenses except one pilot's license.
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