The nation is waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court decision on Indiana’s law requiring government Photo-ID for voters at the polls. The New York Times of February 3 ran this important op-ed by former President Jimmy Carter and James A. Baker III, co-chairs of the 2005 Commission on Federal Election Reform. The op-ed is important, because the Commission had recommended that states require photo voter-ID at the polls. However, the op-ed reminds us all that the Commission had recommended that states take five years to phase in the requirement, and that states provide full assistance to voters who don’t already have such ID. The Commission had even recommended that state or local government employees visit the homes of such voters to provide such assistance. Since Indiana defended its law with repeated reference to the Commission’s recommendations, this op-ed could influence the pending U.S. Supreme Court opinion.
VOTER ID WOULD PREVENT FRAUD.
The irony is that Indiana can’t come up with a single example of how its law would prevent voter fraud. That is true in most other states that have had similar litigation. There is plenty of voter fraud involving absentee ballots, and miscounting the votes, but that kind of voter fraud has nothing to do with voter ID at the polls. It’s not generally worth the risk for a crook to impersonate someone else at the polls. First he or she must make the sign-in signature match. Then he or she runs the risk that someone at the polls will know the voter who is being impersonated. All that risk, just to cast one illegal vote, isn’t worth it.
I don’t see why an ID card would be neccessary now after so many years of not requiering one and with no evidence of fraud.