Thread: NE: Voter ID Bill Could Disenfranchise Voters, Cost State

Opponents: Voter ID bill could disenfranchise voters, cost state money

By Kevin O'Hanlon/Lincoln Journal Star FremontTribune.com | Posted: Tuesday, March 1, 2011 11:00 am | (1) Comments


In the mind of Fremont Sen. Charlie Janssen, his proposal to require people to show photo IDs when they vote is a way to head off voter fraud and ensure Nebraska uses the "best practices" when holding elections.

But opponents of the measure (LB239) say it would disenfranchise some voters - particularly the poor, the elderly and minorities - who do not have driver's licenses by making them pay the $26.50 the state charges to issue a photo ID.

They say requiring people to buy a state ID in order to vote would amount to an illegal "poll tax."

Poll taxes came into being, particularly in southern states, in the 1800s after enactment of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution gave blacks the right to vote. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually struck down the practice.

"If LB239 becomes law, it is likely to disenfranchise more voters than it would protect," said Common Cause spokesman Jack Gould. "National studies show that this type of legislation limits the voting power of the elderly, the disabled, people of color and the poor."

Beverly Neth, director of the state Department of Motor Vehicles, noted that Janssen's bill would let people without photo IDs vote if they could prove they were indigent and could not afford a state ID card.

But verifying who is indigent would be next to impossible and result in the DMV having to issue all state IDs for free to avoid violating federal voting laws.

The state now brings in some $875,000 from the 33,000 IDs it sells each year. The bulk of the money goes to the state. A small portion goes to counties.

"The risk really is, without any criteria, I think the state would run a risk of a constitutional challenge if they charged anyone," Neth said. "I think you've got a pretty good case to argue" that that would amount to a poll tax.

Adam Morfeld, executive director of Nebraskans for Civic Reform, agreed.

"Senator Janssen's insistence that LB239 has no fiscal impact is a misleading and inaccurate representation," he said.

Said Jane Kleeb of Bold Nebraska: "The bottom line is the bill will cost lots of money and will decrease the number of people voting in our state."

"And, while at face value saying ‘everyone should have a government ID to show at the polls' sounds like common sense - reality is not everyone who has the right to vote has that ID," she said.

Janssen has heard the criticism and said he is working with the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee to explore possibly tweaking the measure to allow people to use their voter registration card as ID when voting.

"That would relieve the Department of Motor Vehicles from having to issue those photo IDs," he said.

Janssen's bill is similar to a voter ID law in Indiana - where the state gives out free ID cards - which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008.

The court ruled 6-to-3 that Indiana's law was not enough of a burden to violate the Constitution. The ruling left open the possibility voters could go to court if they had proof they were adversely affected by such laws.

"The application of the statute to the vast majority of Indiana voters is amply justified by the valid interest in protecting the integrity and reliability of the electoral process," wrote Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. "The relevant burdens here are those imposed on eligible voters who lack photo identification cards that comply ...

"Because Indiana's cards are free, the inconvenience of going to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, gathering required documents and posing for a photograph does not qualify as a substantial burden on most voters' right to vote, or represent a significant increase over the usual burdens of voting," Stevens wrote.

"The severity of the somewhat heavier burden that may be placed on a limited number of persons - e.g., elderly persons born out-of-state, who may have difficulty obtaining a birth certificate - is mitigated by the fact that eligible voters without photo identification may cast provisional ballots that will be counted if they execute the required affidavit at the circuit court clerk's office."

In a dissent, Justice David H. Souter wrote: "Indiana's ‘Voter ID Law' threatens to impose nontrivial burdens on the voting right of tens of thousands of the state's citizens and a significant percentage of those individuals are likely to be deterred from voting."

http://fremonttribune.com/news/local/ar ... 03286.html

I'm sick of tired of hearing "my rights! my rights! my rights!". To many think of their rights of a tiny inconvenience and think that their rights means noone else has rights either.

First off I'll never think voting is a blank "right", no... its a privledge of a law abiding citizens, its a moral obligation of a US citizen, and its a Constitutional Obligation of a US Citizen. As such that needs to be protected from falseness and abuse. Also everyone SHOULD have some form of ID whether your 18 or 80, black, white, brown, or green and that ID should be able to be trusted as showing your real status as either an illegal (foreign ID), US Citizen (valid picture ID where one has to show their Birth Certificate to obtain), or a green card for legal immigrants who should have a specific marking on their ID's showing they are NOT a citizen.

What ever happened to the saying "Ask not what your Country can do for you, but ask what YOU can do for your Country!". The people are the Country... not just the land. The People have a duty and a moral obligation to put the Country first ahead of their own petty "wants" to be a solo player. THAT is what it means to be an American. To think what is best for YOUR Country... the United States of America. Screw the Government, the government is NOT the Country. The Government is here to protect the Country which is the American People.