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EDITORIAL: Call for caution on voter ID
Memphis Commercial Appeal ^ | 5/2/8 | Editor

Posted on 05/02/2008 7:52:33 AM PDT by SmithL

The Supreme Court's approval of the country's strictest election standards doesn't mean every state should adopt them -

The U.S. Supreme Court stamped its approval this week on Indiana's decision to require voters to show photo identification at the polls. Should Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas get in line?

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.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: Tennessee
KEYWORDS: deadvoters; opheliaford; scotus; votefraud; voterid
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The dead will always find a way to vote in Memphis.
1 posted on 05/02/2008 7:54:01 AM PDT by SmithL
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To: Coldwater Creek; GailA

Ophelia Ping


2 posted on 05/02/2008 7:54:42 AM PDT by SmithL (Reject Obama's Half-Vast Wright-Wing Conspiracy)
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To: SmithL
The Supreme Court's approval of the country's strictest election standards doesn't mean every state should adopt them -

Well, yes actually, it does.

3 posted on 05/02/2008 8:00:20 AM PDT by Yo-Yo (USAF, TAC, 12th AF, 366 TFW, 366 MG, 366 CRS, Mtn Home AFB, 1978-81)
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To: SmithL

That read almost word for word like a DNC press release.


4 posted on 05/02/2008 8:00:27 AM PDT by L98Fiero (A fool who'll waste his life, God rest his guts.)
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To: SmithL

Yeah, let’s not rush into FAIR HONEST ONE CITIZEN ONE VOTE elections now ...

/ rat mode


5 posted on 05/02/2008 8:01:20 AM PDT by mgc1122
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To: SmithL
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.

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.

6 posted on 05/02/2008 8:01:24 AM PDT by Yankee
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To: SmithL
--the Denver Post had an even worse editorial on this a few days ago--the readers mostly set them straight-- ---http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_9098034?source=pop_section_opinion
7 posted on 05/02/2008 8:02:45 AM PDT by rellimpank (--don't believe anything the MSM tells you about firearms or explosives--NRA Benefactor)
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To: SmithL
The dead will always find a way to vote in Memphis.

If the dead can run for Senate in Missouri (Mel Carnahan,) then why shouldn't the dead be allowed to vote?

8 posted on 05/02/2008 8:03:44 AM PDT by Yo-Yo (USAF, TAC, 12th AF, 366 TFW, 366 MG, 366 CRS, Mtn Home AFB, 1978-81)
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To: SmithL
Ahhhhh, from Tennesee, the state that provided ID to terrorists...

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

9 posted on 05/02/2008 8:08:41 AM PDT by null and void (No man's life, liberty or property are safe as long as court is in session...)
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To: SmithL
Vote Once Project
10 posted on 05/02/2008 8:09:35 AM PDT by Sgt_Schultze
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To: SmithL
The dead will always find a way to vote in Memphis.

Especially if they use the Death Certificate as ID ;-)

11 posted on 05/02/2008 8:14:03 AM PDT by varon (Allegiance to the constitution, always. Allegiance to a political party, never.)
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To: varon

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!


12 posted on 05/02/2008 8:28:25 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
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To: SmithL

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.


13 posted on 05/02/2008 8:34:51 AM PDT by weegee (Vote Obama 2008 for a bitter America.)
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To: SmithL

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.....


14 posted on 05/02/2008 8:49:34 AM PDT by Niteranger68 (If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.)
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To: SmithL

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.


15 posted on 05/02/2008 8:52:15 AM PDT by VeniVidiVici (Ted Kennedy - Codename -> "Bobber")
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To: Yo-Yo

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.


16 posted on 05/02/2008 9:00:58 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: SmithL

“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?


17 posted on 05/02/2008 9:06:02 AM PDT by count-your-change (you don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: SmithL

[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.


18 posted on 05/02/2008 9:14:48 AM PDT by FastCoyote (I am intolerant of the intolerable.)
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To: SmithL

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!


19 posted on 05/02/2008 9:34:59 AM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Dilbert San Diego
Well, I think what they mean is that the Supreme Court ruling doesn’t require that states have voter ID requirements.

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.

20 posted on 05/02/2008 9:59:20 AM PDT by Yo-Yo (USAF, TAC, 12th AF, 366 TFW, 366 MG, 366 CRS, Mtn Home AFB, 1978-81)
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