The Virginia General Assembly is busily grinding out bills that will make it considerably more difficult for Virginians to cast ballots that count. In recent years, voter ID laws have cropped up in states across the country, aimed to stymie a source of fraud that simply does not exist, and Virginia is no different. Under current law, if a voter does not or cannot produce appropriate identification at the polls, the voter can simply sign a sworn document attesting his or her identity, then cast a regular ballot. Proposed legislation in both the House of Delegates and the Senate aims to take this option away from Virginia voters and place still more stringent restrictions on the kinds of ID that are accepted.
Senate bill 301 and House bills 341 and 498 all relegate voters who fail to present identification to casting provisional ballots in a state that rejected 72% of all provisional ballots in the 2008 election, according to a 2008 report by the Election Assistance Commission. Furthermore, these bills could require these same voters to supply the electoral board with a copy of their identification on the day after the election in order for their provisional ballots to be counted. The Senate bill removes the commonwealth‘s own voter registration card as an acceptable form of identification, despite the fact that the United States Department of Homeland Security considers these cards as “Documents that Establish Identity.” The two House bills go even further, restricting proof of identification to documents issued by the commonwealth or the United States, which contain the name and photograph of the voter and a valid expiration date. This would prevent countless Virginians from casting regular ballots and place the validity of their provisional ballots in jeopardy.
House bills 341 and 497 would also make it considerably more difficult for people to register to vote, requiring applicants to supply proof of citizenship with their voter registration application. The only documents acceptable to prove citizenship under these bills are copies of a birth certificate, passport, naturalization documents, or Bureau of Indian Affairs card number. Many people do not have ready access to these documents, or the means to reproduce and submit them along with a voter registration application. In addition, these bills would effectively end the ability of organizations to conduct voter registration drives out in the community, where the question must be asked: how many citizens actually carry these documents around with them, let alone a copy machine? While these measures create an obvious burden on potential voters, they also increase the burden on state election agencies, increasing the amount of paperwork they handle and increasing the load on local registrars.
While SB 301 has already died in sub-committee, the House bills are still progressing and have the potential to seriously curtail the voting rights of Virginians. In order for our system of democracy to function properly, it is essential for voters to be able to participate freely and easily in the electoral process. Under the guise of making elections more secure, these bills instead will disenfranchise vast numbers of voters. Legislators in Richmond should work to get more Virginians involved in the process, not to erect barriers between their constituents and the ballot box.