http://lcsun-news.com/news/ci_4134063

Panel hears voting issues
By Diana M. Alba Sun-News reporter


LAS CRUCES — Some witnesses at a U.S. House of Representatives field hearing on Thursday argued that stronger voter identification is needed to keep fraud from elections, while others cautioned such requirements could discriminate against minorities.

The hearing was scheduled to investigate issues related to non-citizens voting, but Vernon J. Ehlers, R-Mich., chairman of the House Committee on Administration, said he wanted to hear more about all types of fraud, not only illegal voting by undocumented immigrants.

"I kept trying to steer (discussion) away from that," he said. "It's part of the problem, but it's not the whole problem."

U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., isn't on the administration committee, but was invited to participate in the two-hour meeting, held in a conference room at Memorial Medical Center. Some 100 attendees sat in the audience but weren't allowed to testify.

Some Democrats contended the hearing, along with 26 others scheduled around the country on immigration topics, is an attempt by House Republicans to draw attention away from other national issues.

State Rep. Justine Fox-Young, R-Albuquerque, said it's hard to tell how much of a problem New Mexico has with illegal immigrant voting because the state has no way to uncover it.

"There is no systematic method for detecting fraud," she said. "Over 3,000 fraudulent registration forms were caught in Bernalillo County alone (in 2000). However there is no way of estimating the number of fraudulent registrations that made it into the roster."

Fox-Young said voters should have to show a proof of citizenship, such as a federal voter ID that includes a photo.

Kathleen Walker, an El Paso immigration attorney and president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said a requirement to show an ID would be difficult for some groups. In Wisconsin, for example, 78 percent of black men between the ages of 18 and 24 don't have a driver's license, she said.

"The right to vote must be zealously guarded as sacrosanct," she said. "The potential impact of the imposition of identity requirements must be cautiously weighed against voter suppression."

Kimmeth Yazzie, program specialist with the Navajo Election Administration, said an ID requirement would be a hardship for Navajos. He said many of them don't have IDs, live in rural areas that don't have physical addresses and don't like to have their photos taken because of religious reasons.

Ehlers

said he thinks certain organizations are taking advantage of immigrants by registering them to vote and using their identities to commit fraud. He said he doubts there's much of a problem with individuals who aren't citizens trying to cast ballots.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., an administration committee member, said the series of hearings nationwide is an attempt to draw attention away from the House-Senate stalemate on immigration reform, along with other problems.

"The Republicans have been in charge of this — they have the Senate and the House — and they haven't done anything," she said. "These field hearings aren't a suitable answer to that lack of action."

But Ehlers and Pearce said that's not the case.

"We're not distracting anyone," Ehlers said. "The problem we have here is the Senate has never sent the (immigration) bill to us, and it has nothing to do with whether we're holding hearings or not."

Pearce said he has been concerned about voting irregularities in the elections process. In 2002, he said, he gave information to the House about problems he'd experienced in Doña Ana County. Though the last federal election was two years ago, Pearce said it often takes time for hearings to be scheduled.

"I think the main thing we did was bring the issue out publicly and talk about it on the record," he said. "If we as an American people lose confidence in our voting system ... , we'll go a long ways to undermine the democracy and the freedom we're fighting for in other countries ... ."

Six witnesses testified: Fox-Young; Walker; Yazzie; Vicki Perea, a former Albuquerque city councilor; Daniel A. Bryant, a Republican attorney; and Jennifer Hensley, with the New Mexico Protection and Advocacy System, an advocacy group for disabled people.

Ehlers continued on to Phoenix, where a second hearing on voting issues was scheduled.


Diana M. Alba can be reached at dalba@lcsun-news.com



On the Net


Committee on House Administration:

http://cha.house.gov