The “War on Voting”–the partisan-fueled campaign to enact laws to restrict access to the ballot–has received significant attention in the last week. The most contentious issue leading up to the 2012 elections is the requirement to provide photo ID at the polls. Here’s the latest news on the battle over photo ID and other laws designed to raise barriers to democracy.
- On August 30, Ari Berman at Rolling Stone wrote an expansive piece on the “GOP War on Voting,” which includes an arsenal of restrictive laws to hinder voter registration drives, reduce early voting periods, require photo ID, and disenfranchise people who once served time in prison.
- The Wisconsin Bar Association’s civil rights unit asked the U.S. Justice Department to review the state’s new photo voter ID law out of concern that the law could “suppress the votes of thousands of eligible Wisconsin voters,” particularly the poor, young, and minorities. In the Milwaukee area alone, 59 percent of Latina women and 55 percent of Black men lacked a valid state ID, according to a 2005 University of Wisconsin study that was cited in the bar’s letter. The new law, the state bar asserts, should be “subjected to the highest scrutiny” to “determine whether or not there was any unlawful intent” by lawmakers to passed the law.
- After the Justice Dept. asked South Carolina officials to provide more data to determine if its photo ID law would “disenfranchise minority voters,” Republican Governor Nikki Haley came though on a promise to provide one day of free transportation for anyone who needs to go to the DMV to obtain proper ID. But with an estimated 178,000 registered voters without state ID, critics of the new law say Haley’s attempt “doesn’t get to the heart of the matter.” Aside from it being only one day to assist a potentially large number of people, the free ride option does not address the fact that people need birth certificates to obtain ID. With as many as seven percent of the U.S. population lacking proof of citizenship, this can be a costly and arduous roadblock to democracy.
- Pennsylvania election officials are gearing up for a Senate vote on photo ID bill HB 934 this month. Secretary of State Carol Aichele and Doug Hill of the County Commissioners Association have opposing views of the pending bill. Aichele–who admitted that she has “never seen voter fraud” in her 30 years as an election official–says photo ID is necessary to prevent voter fraud while Hill says it will bog down the election system, adding that there are already safeguards against fraudulent voting in the commonwealth.