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January 25, 2006
Georgia Goes After Voter Fraud
In my home state of Georgia, the legislature has signed off on the final version of a bill to require photo IDs at polling places. Next stop: the governor's desk, and he says he'll sign it.
This was tried last year, but a judge struck it down, considering it tantamount to a poll tax. Since I believe it said that people without a driver's licence could get a state-issued ID but would have to pay for it, I can understand that ruling. This version makes it free.
Predictably, the Democrats don't like this anti-voter-fraud idea.
State Rep. DuBose Porter of Dublin, the Democratic leader in the House, denounced passage of the bill as unnecessary and an attempt by the GOP “to rig this November’s elections.”.He said the GOP has not been able to document a single case of fraud involving election-day voting.
“Aren’t we just speaking about a problem that doesn’t exist?” Porter said.
Well, if you don't check ID at the polls, how can you substantiate claims of voter fraud? Wonderful catch-22.
Just as predictably, the ACLU is ready to challenge this common-sense measure. Must protect the civil liberties of those ballot stuffers, dontcha' know?
Posted by Doug at January 25, 2006 02:13 PM
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This bill does not issue a State ID, but an ID from the voter registration officials. I personally think that it would have been cheaper to issue non-driving State ID cards at the DMV than to require every county to setup a function that is already in place by the DMV. Think of all the cameras and other equipment that the taxpayers will be covering.
Posted by: John at January 25, 2006 05:37 PM
Doug Payton writes: Well, if you don't check ID at the polls, how can you substantiate claims of voter fraud?
Um, by following up on the voter registration lists to see if registered voters are ineligible, and by checking to see if signatures supplied at polling places match the signatures on the registration cards? That's the traditional family-values approach to investigating claims of voter eligibility fraud, and it's always worked wherever there's been fraud to catch.
So why do you need to check identification at the polling place again?
Posted by: s9 at January 25, 2006 11:34 PM