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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (23937)	1/7/2008 12:59:07 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 71588

Voter Motor Our Monday item about the Indiana voter-ID case pending before the Supreme Court prompted a reader to email us a FoxNews.com column by Democratic former congressman Martin Frost, making the case against voter ID: This law in fact discriminates against people who do not drive and do not otherwise need a state-issued photo ID. Who are we talking about? Elderly, disabled, poor and minority voters, to be specific. Most of these coincidentally are Democrats. According to the brief submitted to the Supreme Court by the individuals challenging the constitutionality of this Indiana law, the statute clearly is aimed straight at these groups. The brief notes that "About 12% of voting-age Americans lack a driver's license. And about 11% of voting-age United States citizens--more than 21 million individuals--lack any form of current government-issued photo ID. That 11% figure grows to 15% for voting-age citizens earning less than $35,000 per year, 18% for citizens at least 65 years old, and 25% for African-American voting-age citizens." This is what is called in the law a "disparate effect." . . . Many middle class and wealthy white people can't understand why someone would not have a current photo ID. These are the same people who didn't understand why poor blacks and the elderly weren't able to get out of New Orleans before Katrina hit. It was because many of these unfortunate victims of the storm didn't have a car and, of course, also didn't need a driver's license with a photo ID. The trouble with this argument is that it is circular: Requiring photo ID discriminates against people who don't have photo ID (or, more precisely, against groups that are overrepresented among the ID-less). Isn't this just as true of any photo ID requirement? If a bank refuses to open an account unless the prospective customer produces photo ID, is that a violation of civil rights? Is it unconstitutional for the federal government to require that employers check the identity of newly hired workers? Yet somehow demands for identification are a civil rights issue only when it comes to the ballot box. For that matter, if minorities have a lesser propensity to get driver's licenses, doesn't that mean the "motor voter" law, championed by Democrats, is discriminatory because it disproportionately gives opportunities for white (and younger, and higher-income) people to register to vote? This is a matter on which both parties assert high-minded concerns--Republicans in preventing fraud, Democrats in making it as easy as possible to vote legitimately--that happen to dovetail nicely with partisan self-interest. But there is another way of looking at the question that gives both parties an opportunity to show their good faith. The figures Frost cites for the proportion of adults without photo ID are shocking if true. Voting and driving aside, the lack of a photo ID makes many functions of ordinary life more difficult or expensive to conduct--or at least to conduct legitimately: getting a job, conducting routine financial transactions, traveling between cities, negotiating encounters with policemen. People without IDs are marginalized in important ways, and if their numbers are as great as Frost claims, this is a serious social problem. Why not, then, couple the photo ID requirement with a program allowing would-be voters to obtain or renew such IDs on the spot on Election Day--a sort of "motor voter" in reverse? This could be combined with other efforts to get ID to those who lack it. This would help the poor while discouraging voter fraud, thereby furthering both parties' professed goals. And it would do far more to benefit black and poor Americans than merely getting them to the polls. opinionjournal.com