Posted on 05/02/2008 7:52:33 AM PDT by SmithL
Not necessarily. State lawmakers should always be concerned about the integrity of the ballot, decide what can reasonably and fairly be expected of voters and legislate accordingly.
But there is no federal mandate to adopt the photo ID, a solution that still seems to be in search of a problem.
In his dissenting opinion, Justice David H. Souter explained what was wrong with this legislation, and this ruling: There was no evidence of in-person voter impersonation in Indiana, he noted, and "very little" nationwide. "The interest in combating voter fraud," Souter noted, "has too often served as a cover for unnecessarily restrictive electoral rules."
A Tennessee photo ID law would not have prevented the only serious case of election fraud in the Mid-South in recent history.
The phony votes cast in a 2005 special election in state Senate District 29 in Memphis were the products of an inside job by election officials who manipulated the system.
Three poll workers apparently trying to throw the election to Ophelia Ford pleaded guilty to fraud in that case after faking at least three votes, two of which had been cast in the names of dead people. They wouldn't have had to produce any sort of ID to pull that one off.
Abuse of the system by voters, however, is practically nonexistent. The real issue with voter ID laws revolves around the perception that they discourage voting among older, poorer, mostly minority and mostly Democratic voters.
The Indiana photo ID law, one of the nation's toughest ballot protection statutes, was approved by Republicans on a strict, party-line vote. Concerns expressed recently about the protection of the ballot in Mississippi have come from the GOP side, as well.
Will such laws have a substantial effect on election outcomes? That seems unlikely, in an age when most voters can readily produce a photo ID.
In fact, it doesn't seem burdensome to require some form of identification at the polls. But the rules should be reasonable. Anything that discourages voter turnout or results in even a few legitimate voters not being able to exercise their rights on election day is harmful to the democracy.
In the South, fights over voter identification laws are too reminiscent of the bad old days of voter intimidation -- in the form of poll taxes, citizenship tests and the like -- that were clearly intended to discourage African-Americans from exercising their rights.
Overly strict voter identification laws are so divisive they are not really worth the fight, sapping energy from the real problems faced by lawmakers.
In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, "Now we have a very clear roadmap for other states to follow," said Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita, a Republican. "We've been getting calls from 25 other states that have been waiting for a green light, waiting to proceed."
Surely with more serious problems to address, they would be better off to proceed with caution.
Ophelia Ping
Well, yes actually, it does.
That read almost word for word like a DNC press release.
Yeah, let’s not rush into FAIR HONEST ONE CITIZEN ONE VOTE elections now ...
/ rat mode
Well duh.
Maybe it is because their opponents, the Democrats, routinely register ineligible voters such as convicted felons, illegal aliens and even dead people, and bus other voters from polling place to polling place to cast multiple votes.
If the dead can run for Senate in Missouri (Mel Carnahan,) then why shouldn't the dead be allowed to vote?
Five Men with Mideast Ties Indicted in License Scam (Tennessee License Scandal)
TENN DRIVER LICENSE SCANDAL: FLAMING DEATH NO ACCIDENT, FBI SAYS
Car fire set off suspicions as crew fought it (Smith Tennesee License Scandal)
License suspect had WTC repair pass, but Port Authority did its own work [Tennessee License Scandal] The pass gave him access to the buildings' sprinkler systems. I bet he "fixed" them real good. Treason is not too strong a word.
...and is busy banging out license plates for as many illegal aliens as they can
Man charged with selling license plates to illegal immigrants
Especially if they use the Death Certificate as ID ;-)
A slight historic ommission by this ignorant Editor:
It was the Dems/Dixiecrats with their enforcers the KKK, that fought to discourage African-Americans from exercising their rights. As usual the Republicans get no credit for their principled stand for the right to fair & honest Voting....please donot let these rasce baiters get away with their false history!
So why do I need to show an ID to get on a plane? The hijackers on 9-11 had IDs. Wouldn’t have stopped the hijacking.
And the guy who plotted to use chemical bombs carried on by passengers is dead but they’ll still throw out my toothpaste at the airport as I go through security.
The voter rolls are padded with people who no longer or never existed. They can get IDs to appear at the polls as all of those people, but for now they just need to get a card in the mail and anyone can walk into the polling center with that card.
I tell my few Democrat friends that they better get to the polls early on election day or they might find out that I have voted for them. Talk about hissy fits.....
Notice it is only left-wing, Democrat supporters that are howling about this.
It’s because they know their fraudulent voters just got blown away.
Well, I think what they mean is that the Supreme Court ruling doesn’t require that states have voter ID requirements. The ruling was that Indiana’s law was constitutional. Clearly this paper disagrees with the ruling and thinks other states shouldn’t adopt this type of law.
“Overly strict voter identification laws are so divisive they are not really worth the fight, sapping energy from the real problems faced by lawmakers.”
hmmmm....? Like staying out of jail per the “Tennessee Waltz” investigations?
[The real issue with voter ID laws revolves around the perception that they discourage voting among older, poorer, mostly minority and mostly Democratic voters.]
Add in criminals, and the insane (who are mostly Democrats too) and I think we have a winner.
And no, I’m not a racist for leaving the minorities out, it’s the Democrats who have the plantation mentality.
Hmmmmmm.
In the South, fights over voter identification laws are too reminiscent of the bad old days of voter intimidation — in the form of poll taxes, citizenship tests and the like — that were clearly intended to discourage African-Americans from exercising their rights.
Those examples are what, a hundred years old or MORE!
My interpretation was that the newspaper was opining that even though the Supreme Court said such ID laws were legal, it's not a good idea to have them.
I disagreed, and think all states should have a voter ID requirement.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.