Thread: AZ Officials argue on stronger ID requirements for voting

http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=5240391&nav=HMO6HMaW

Officials argue over whether stronger ID requirements needed

Aug 4, 2006 07:47 AM PDT

Government officials argued Thursday that stronger voter identification is needed to prevent illegal immigrants from casting ballots, while others asserted such a problem doesn't even exist and strengthening voting requirements would only alienate minority voters.

The arguments were part of testimony in front of the U.S. House Committee on House Administration at an immigration field hearing here.

The committee held a similar hearing earlier Thursday in New Mexico.

"It is true, of course, that it is illegal for non-citizens to vote in our elections," said Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., chairman of the Administration Committee. "But simply making something illegal does not prevent it from happening; if it did, no one under the age of 21 would drink alcohol and no one would rob banks."

Last year, 10 people who were not U.S. citizens were indicted on charges of filing false documents after trying to register to vote, testified Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas.

Thomas' office is looking into 149 other cases in which non-citizens allegedly registered to vote. He said records show 37 non-citizens seeking to become U.S. citizens have successfully registered to vote and 15 of them have voted.

"These numbers do not tell us how many illegal immigrants have registered to vote," Thomas said, adding that "the right to vote is arguably our most sacred constitutional right."

"This right is reserved for our citizens," he added. "When non-citizens vote in American elections, they are undermining our right to self-government."

In 2004, Arizona voters passed Proposition 200, an initiative requiring voters to prove their citizenship before casting a ballot. It also denied some government benefits to illegal immigrants.

Legislation similar to Arizona's law is pending before the House Administration Committee. It would impose voting restrictions at the federal level.

Opponents of the Arizona law say it has stopped eligible voters from casting votes.

Karen Osborne, Maricopa County director of elections, said in 15 elections in March 2005, 177 people out of 71,306 were turned away at the polls because they lacked proof of citizenship. Out of those turned away, 62 returned with identification while 115 did not return, she said.

There is no way to know whether those who didn't return were illegal immigrants trying to vote or U.S. citizens who simply forget or did not have ID.

Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., denounced the hearing as instilling fear and hysteria in the immigrant community, marginalizing people based on race, national origin, income and disabilities. He said the U.S. Congress is avoiding the complex issue of immigration reform.

"This hearing is not about voter fraud," Grijalva said. "The real objective is pretty transparent to me. The leadership of this Congress wants to maintain its majority."

Ehlers denied the hearings are politically motivated, saying he is concerned about voter fraud outside of illegal immigration.

Outside the hearing, an illegal-immigrant-rights group held raffles for the Hispanic community and registered new voters. They also criticized the hearing as nothing more than politicians putting on a show.

"The only fraud that is going on is the fraudulent attempt at creating the notion that somehow there are hoards of undocumented immigrants going to the voting booth," said Roberto Reveles, president of activist group Somos America, or We Are America.

The group helped organize a 100,000-person illegal-immigrant rights march in Phoenix on April 10.

"We're witnessing a dog and pony show that is simply trying to divert the public's attention from the inability of this Congress and this administration to act on what they have helped create as a national issue," Reveles said. "They are creating a national atmosphere of fear. They are promoting a campaign of terror among our people."

Alfredo Gutierrez, a former state senator and a local leader of the Hispanic community, said the hearing shows the committee members' discrimination.

"What you're here to witness is the demonization of a people, an attempt to demonize," he said. "But you know, we're not going to be demonized that easily. And it's going to take more than a silly committee of lazy people who don't want to do their responsibility and get on the business of immigration reform in this country. It's going to take more than that."

http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/140752

Grijalva: Federal law to require national voter ID is tool of GOP
By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.04.2006
PHOENIX — Federal legislation to impose national voter identification requirements is designed largely to maintain the Republican majority and not to deal with fraud, a Democratic member of the state's congressional delegation said Thursday.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., said he appreciates that the "field hearing" of the Committee on House Administration sought input from all sides of the issue.

The panel is reviewing Arizona's Proposition 200, which is very similar to HR 4844 awaiting action before that committee, to study the effects of making the system national.

Grijalva said, though, the measure — and the hearings being conducted by the panel in Phoenix and around the country — are strictly politics.

"The (Republican) leadership of this Congress wants to maintain its majority," he said. "So the objective to me appears to be to begin to erect obstacles to voting by affixing a solution to a nonexistent problem by deeply dividing this nation with fear and hysteria."

He said the GOP majority is choosing to go this route rather than dealing with the complex issues of immigration and border security.

"If the logic is the less they vote, the better for us, how cynical and how un-American," Grijalva said.

Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., who chairs the panel, later laughed off that suggestion.

"I don't think this will have much effect on whether we control the Congress or not," he said. Ehlers said he's "just trying to do what's right."

Ehlers, the only official member of the panel to come to Phoenix, said the committee is exploring how various states deal with voter identification. He said the testimony will be used to write a final version of a new federal law.

Proposition 200, approved by Arizona voters in 2004, requires proof of citizenship to register and certain forms of identification to cast a ballot.

Much of the discussion and testimony Thursday dealt with trying to strike a balance between the need to ensure that only those legally entitled to vote do so and taking action that actually suppresses turnout.
Secretary of State Jan Brewer, who supported the initiative, said the new requirements have not kept people from the polls, saying voter registration is at an all-time high.

Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne noted that since the citizenship proof requirement was implemented in January 2005, her office has received 441,000 new registrations. But she said 15,000 of these were rejected for lack of the required documents.

Mary Wilson, president of the League of Women Voters of the United States, questioned the need for the legislation. She said there is "no credible evidence" that people who are not citizens "are voting in such numbers that it would justify placing barriers to voter registration."

But Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said his office indicted 10 people last year who registered to vote but were not citizens. And Thomas said that, given how close some elections are, any fraud can change the outcome.

Ehlers said he wants to protect the integrity of the electoral process. He said the requirements of Proposition 200 "were designed to prevent the votes of citizens from being diluted by those of noncitizens."
He said congressional action is needed because most states do not have proof-of-citizenship requirements.

"In most states, the process amounts to an honor system," he said. "We cannot rely on the honor of those among us that are inclined to commit fraud."

Attorney Daniel Ortega said one problem with Proposition 200 is that it requires people to spend money to obtain a driver's license, birth certificate or other acceptable forms of identification. He said that makes it akin to the poll tax, which was banned by the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

has anyone else thought that allowing this invasion, identity theft, etc. is the governments way of makeing us "want" a national ID card? Do you see where I am going with this?

Originally Posted by ohflyingone

has anyone else thought that allowing this invasion, identity theft, etc. is the governments way of makeing us "want" a national ID card? Do you see where I am going with this?

Oh yes, I do It's like when I found out that the government wanted Indians to carry Tribal identify cards. What better way to keep track of us. Soon, someone will suggest a tatoo (translate - Jews) or in this modern day and age - a biochip of some kind.

Not in my hide they dont

"The only fraud that is going on is the fraudulent attempt at creating the notion that somehow there are hoards of undocumented immigrants going to the voting booth," said Roberto Reveles, president of activist group Somos America, or We Are America.

One illegal alien vote is one too many!