Voter ID - A Solution without a Problem

Voter ID – A Solution without A Problem

In recent years many states have passed new “voter ID” laws to combat the problem of election fraud. The problem is that voter fraud doesn't exist, at least not in the form of people showing up to vote who aren't who they say they are.

In fact, a federally mandated report on election fraud found that there is no evidence of in-person fraud at the polling place because, as a Republican consultant put it: “Who's going to take the risk of going to jail on something so blatant that maybe changes one vote?”

Instead, the election fraud that has taken place is systematic: it involves the manipulation of registration lists, the disappearance or the stuffing of ballot boxes, absentee ballots filed on behalf of dead people, and the now infamous problems with computer voting machines.

So why are states passing increasingly restrictive voter ID laws instead of taking measures to address election fraud that really does exist and is verifiable? It is a question voters everywhere should be asking of their state representatives and their election officials.

The attorney general for Indiana, who is defending the most restrictive law in the nation in front of the Supreme Court this month, can only make the feeble assertion that the law's effect is mostly “preventative.”

“Preventative.” The logic is mind-boggling. The state of Indiana is making everyone get a government-issued photo ID to prevent a crime that its highest-ranking law enforcement official acknowledges does not exist.

You could just enjoy the irony of the situation if it were not for the fact that Indiana's voter ID law and other laws like it are having a negative effect on one of our most fundamental rights as citizens –the right to vote.

For the past three centuries, our country has moved progressively towards the expansion of the right to vote, beginning with the abolition of property requirements, then racial, gender, and age restrictions.

So why in the twenty-first century are we suddenly reversing course and making it harder for people to vote? Are politicians really concerned about voter fraud? Or do they fear the impact of the rising numbers of voters who began participating in the electoral process when some states made it easier for people to register to vote.

With the margin of victory in the last two presidential elections so narrow, and the 2008 election already hotly contested in both parties, the stakes continue to grow for both political parties. And that makes it more likely that “Voter ID” will become another partisan wedge issue as Republicans try to stir up fears among their supporters about alleged voter fraud, and Democrats fight against these restrictions fearing vote suppression among groups likely to vote for their party.

In the meantime, Voter ID laws make it harder for the poor, the elderly, and minorities to vote because many people in these categories don't drive, and many have limited time and means to get the necessary photo ID.

There are solutions that could at least begin to address these problems. Laws could be modified to exempt those over the age of 60 or those claiming indigence. The state could sponsor free voter ID sign-ups on special dates at social security offices, or public libraries, and encourage civic groups to help those with limited mobility to reach these outreach sites.

But fundamentally as a society we should be asking: What is at stake in making it more difficult for any citizen to vote?

At every stage when the right to vote was extended to a new group--men without property, blacks, women, the young--conservatives made dire predictions about how this would destroy the democratic process because they argued that members of these groups were not as capable of exercising the right to vote judiciously. More importantly, they feared that these newly-enfranchised groups would vote against the interests of those who already enjoyed that privilege.

Those same fears are operating today in our democracy where the specter of individual voter fraud is raised, not to improve the security of the electoral process, but to restrict access to it. The real dangers to the electoral process reside in the abuses of partisan officials who oversee state elections and who systematically try to rig the system in favor of their political party.

That is the kind of election abuse that should concern all citizens, even as we advocate to once again guarantee the right to vote to all U.S. Citizens without undue restrictions, and amend voter ID laws to encourage the vote and not to suppress it.