Written by Jane Roush | 05 September 2011

Voter ID
Recently the states of Wisconsin and Texas enacted laws requiring voters to show official, valid photo ID in order to cast a ballot. There are now 12 states requiring photo ID in order to vote, including Florida, Kansas and South Carolina. Republican controlled legislatures in another 13 states are working to have similar laws enacted.

The proposed law revisions are not limited just to photo ID, but in some cases the changes will reduce the number of early voting days and/or tighten registration rules. Florida now has a law restricting third party voter registration organization and has shortened the number of early voting days. This change has resulted in the League of Women Voters in Florida ceasing to register voters.

Republicans are saying they want to weed out fraudulent votes and preserve the integrity of the ballot box. Florida Republicans have claimed large increases in the immigrant population forces them to take step to insure voters are legally entitled to vote.

Democrats say it is all about putting obstacles in the way of voters, especially young people, poor people and minorities. Usually these groups are less inclined to have driver's licenses, which are usually the main source of ID's. Older people often do not have driver's licenses.

Most states are accepting other types of ID, such as passports, military identification, or photo ID's from the state's Department of Motor Vehicles. The cost to retrieve copies of documents such as birth certificates will add another barrier to getting ID's.

Partisan politicians are driving the changes. Generally the states where the Republicans control the state legislatures are where voter ID laws are being introduced and enacted.

However there also appear to be some instances where the parties are switching sides. In Rhode Island, the state legislature and governor positions are controlled/filled by Democrats. They enacted and signed a law-requiring photo ID for voting. The Ohio State legislature passed a similar bill and the Ohio governor was ready to sign the bill until the Secretary of State of Ohio objected. The Ohio SOS said that no bill was better than a bill that did nothing to control or detect fraud and legally filled voter ballots might not be counted. Republicans control the Ohio legislature and governorship.

Beyond all of the proposed changes are money issues. If funding is not available for the voter ID laws, many of these proposed changes will not be enacted.

Sources include: NY Times, "Voter Registration and Requirements," August 23,201; NY Times, "Republican Legislators Push to Tighten Voting Rules," May 28, 201; and electionlineWeekly, August 18, 2011, 1. In Focus This Week, "Suddenly, the voter ID debate is unpredictable."

Speaker's Forums
The fall presentation of speakers/programs for the 6:00pm meeting of the MCDCC will kick off on September 14, 2011. The first program will be the elected officials for various school boards in Mason County. The speakers will talk about the duties and responsibilities of school board officials. They will also discuss how the administrative officials and staff work with the school boards.

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