Advocates for requiring voters to show a government photo ID are hitting a few more points in their closing arguments before a veto override vote expected this week. The arguments all fall short. First, they say, “Democrats in Rhode Island just adopted a photo ID law, why not do it here.” But the RI law is much different than the vetoed NC bill, H-351. Rhode Island’s photo requirement is phased in, becoming effective Jan. 1, 2014, and a photo ID from a private college is acceptable, not just from a public university as in H-351. Most important, a voter without an ID can fill out a provisional ballot and it will count if election officials later match the signature with the voter’s signature in the registration file. Unlike H-351, the voter need not return to the election office – a person’s signature at the polling place is enough.
Next ID advocates say, “The majority of states require voters to show an ID, and NC should, too.” Yes, 30 of the 50 states require some kind of ID, but even after the big push by GOP legislatures, only 7 states have a law as restrictive as H-351. Legislators in the other 43 states are just as concerned about fraud, but they recognize Big Government intimidation is not needed. Another argument goes, “The vast majority of North Carolinian favor requiring an ID.” Yes, it’s popular and makes common sense until you consider all the facts. In the same poll (page 14), 10% of respondents said it would “decrease their ability to vote.” If just 2% were pushed aside, that’s well over 100,000 people penalized at a huge expense for no real increase in voter security.
Finally, we’re told, “Voter turnout in Georgia was not hurt by its strict photo ID requirement.” It’s tough to isolate what factors influence changes in voter turnout, but look at this evidence: In the five presidential elections (1988-2004) before 2008, the voter turnout rate in North Carolina exceeded the rate in Georgia by 3 to 5 percentage points. But in 2008, after Georgia adopted its ID law, our turnout rate was 6.6% higher – 61.3% of voting-age adults cast ballots compared to 54.7% in Georgia. Georgia is now 30% African American, compared to 22% in North Carolina, so you’d think Georgia would have experienced a bigger surge than NC with the Obama factor in 2008. But that didn’t happen. There was an increase over 2004, but it was tamped down by something. No doubt, some people would like a big turnout tamped down in NC in 2012. A 1.5% decrease in turnout among the 7.2 million adults in NC means 100,000 voters who would not have their voices heard.
Opposing viewpoint from Pat McCrory, our next Governor.
Let’s hope N.C.’s voter ID bill lives to fight another day
Posted: Wednesday, Aug. 03, 2011
McCrory
From Pat McCrory, a former Charlotte mayor and likely Republican candidate for governor in 2012:
The N.C. legislature passed a common sense law recently that would require voters to show a photograph identification card when voting. Unfortunately for the integrity of our elections, Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed the bill and the legislature failed to produce the supermajority needed to override her veto. The debate could be over, but let’s hope not.
Since January, six states have adopted laws requiring voters to produce an ID at their polling places – Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee and Wisconsin. These states see that voting is a cherished right, and we owe it to all voters and our democratic system of government to protect the integrity of our elections.
Opponents claim the effort is a “solution in search of a problem.” But history tells a different story. According to the Heritage Foundation:
“A 2010 election in Kansas that ended in a one-vote margin of victory included 50 votes cast illegally by citizens of Somalia. A 1996 congressional race in California was almost overturned by hundreds of votes illegally cast by noncitizens. A 1984 grand jury in Brooklyn revealed a widespread, 14-year conspiracy that cast thousands of fraudulent votes through impersonation fraud in state and congressional elections.”
The obvious problem with the argument that fraud doesn’t exist is how do we actually know without necessary safeguards? As the Commission on Federal Election Reform, headed by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, said in 2005:
“The electoral system cannot inspire public confidence if no safeguards exist to deter or detect fraud or to confirm the identity of voters. Photo IDs currently are needed to board a plane, enter federal buildings and cash a check. Voting is equally important.”
Gov. Perdue disagrees and declared that the N.C. law “will unnecessarily and unfairly disenfranchise many eligible and legitimate voters.”
The facts tell another story. Voter ID opponents in Georgia and Indiana claimed huge numbers of residents would be “disenfranchised.” Courts threw out those claims because, as an Indiana federal district court observed, “Despite apocalyptic assertions of wholesale voter disenfranchisement,” opponents could not find any registered voters who would be prevented from voting. In Georgia, the NAACP, a plaintiff, could not produce a single member who would be unable to vote because of the ID requirement. Minority turnout increased more dramatically in Georgia and Indiana with voter ID requirements than in some states without them.
State Sen. Harold Metts, a Rhode Island Democrat who co-sponsored his state’s voter ID law, said “as a minority citizen and senior citizen I would not support anything that I thought would present obstacles or limit protections.”
North Carolina will have some very close and hotly contested races in 2012, including local races, congressional races, the governor’s race, and the presidential race. The U.S. Supreme Court has noted that voter ID protects the integrity and reliability of the electoral process. Don’t we deserve that in North Carolina?
Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/08/03/2499756/lets-hope-ncs-voter-id-bill-lives.html#ixzz1TzN4cGHv