Obama Introduces Resolution Opposing Photo ID Requirement for Voting
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today, along with Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), introduced a resolution opposing a recommendation released yesterday by the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform that would require all Americans to show photo identification before voting.
Obama commended many of the Commission's recommendations, such as voter-verified paper trails. However, he strongly objected to the Commission's recommendation for a national voter photo identification requirement, noting the Commission's own acknowledgment that there is "no evidence of extensive fraud in U.S. elections or of multiple voting."
"Yesterday, the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform released its recommendations for improving the electoral process," said Obama. "While many of these are good ideas worthy of consideration, its report also recommends the implementation of a national voter identification requirement - a requirement so incredibly restrictive that you couldn't even prove your identity with a U.S. military photo ID card. This is a mistake, and you only have to look to the state of Georgia to see why."
"Georgia's new photo ID requirement is a poll tax for the 21st century. It's a law that requires some of the poorest among us - those who probably don't have access to transportation - to possibly travel great distances and pay up to $35 just to exercise their right to be heard."
A number of states, including Georgia, have recently passed laws mandating government-issued photo identification for voters at the polls. Georgia law no longer allows affidavits affirming one's identify to meet identification requirements for voting, a change that the National Commission on Election Reform just four years ago found would "impose an additional expense on the exercise of the franchise, a burden would fall disproportionately on people who are poorer and urban."
Obama pointed out that Georgia's top election official confirmed that photo identification would not have resolved any instances of fraud in the state's 2004 elections, and he expressed concern that a photo voter ID requirement would have the effect of suppressing the vote, not encouraging it, by creating an undue burden on voters without addressing actual fraud.
Currently, there are 150,000 Georgians over 70 who do not have government-issued photo identification, and 1 in 8 Americans do not have a driver's license. This group is disproportionately poor and often do not have easy access to all the documents necessary to get a government-issued ID. Georgia has only 56 locations in 159 counties where people can get this photo identification, and Atlanta, one of America's largest cities, is not one of them.
"In the last election, many Americans stood for hours and hours just to exercise their Constitutional right to vote," said Obama. "We should be making this easier, not more difficult. And we should be figuring it out how to make it easier for all Americans - not just those with a car, or the extra cash to pay for voter ID card."
Obama also suggested that the strong endorsement of this resolution in the Senate reflects a conviction that the mere fear of voter fraud does not justify making it harder for eligible citizens to exercise their right to vote.
Senators Akaka (D-HI), Clinton (D-NY), Corzine (D-NJ), Dorgan (D-ND), Feingold (D-WI), Harkin (D-IA), Kennedy (D-MA), Kerry (D-MA), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Mikulski (D-MD), Reid (D-NV) and Stabenow (D-MI) have joined Obama and Dodd as cosponsors of this resolution.
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