Voter ID Laws Are Set to Face Strictest Test

[cal04]

IAN URBINA
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/us/07identity.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

In April 2006, a federal judge upheld Indiana’s law on voter identification, the strictest in the nation, saying there was no evidence that it would prevent any voter from having his ballot counted.

But on Election Day last November, Valerie Williams became that evidence, according to lawyers in a case that will be argued Wednesday before the Supreme Court. After Ms. Williams grabbed her cane that day and walked into the polling station in the lobby of her retirement home to vote, as she has done in at least the last two elections, she was barred from doing so.

The election officials at the polling place, whom she had known for years, told her she could not cast a regular ballot. They said the forms of identification she had always used — a telephone bill, a Social Security letter with her address on it and an expired Indiana driver’s license — were no longer valid under the voter ID law, which required a current state-issued photo identification card.

“Of course I threw a fit,” said Ms. Williams, 61, who was made to cast a provisional ballot instead, which, according to voting records, was never counted. Ms. Williams — who has difficulty walking — said she was not able to get a ride to the voting office to prove her identity within 10 days as required under the law, and her ballot was discarded.

[jody]

1. 61 living in a retirement home and unable to go get an ID? Sounds like a staged event to me. n/t

[stillcool]

2. Lots of "Staged Events"...

according to the article...

A brief filed with the Supreme Court by the Marion County Board of Elections, the state’s largest voting jurisdiction and a defendant in the case, said Ms. Williams — who is a black Republican — and 31 other voters had to cast provisional ballots because they showed up at the polls without the state-required ID, which can include a driver’s license, a passport, a state-issued ID or some other government-issued photo identification. Because they also failed to appear later at county offices with the identification required to validate their identities, all of these voters had their ballots thrown out, records show. In interviews, many of these voters said they could not find transportation or could not afford the IDs.

All of these voters appeared at the polling place for the precinct in which they were registered, and all of the signatures on their provisional-ballot envelopes matched the appropriate poll book signatures. At least 14 of these voters had voted in 10 elections before last year, according to voting records.
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Opponents of the law point to the three states — Georgia, Michigan and Missouri — where state officials have recently conducted the most systematic studies on the topic. Those states found that at least 4 percent of registered voters lacked the type of ID needed under the strictest voter identification laws. A 2007 study by political scientists at the University of Washington found that about 13 percent of registered voters in Indiana lacked the required identification.
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Only Florida, Georgia and Indiana require a voter to present photo identification to cast a regular ballot. Other states allow other types of documentation, like utility bills or a sworn affidavit from the voter. Twenty-three states in effect do not require proof of identification of all voters, requiring only what federal law demands: only first-time voters who apply by mail and have not otherwise been verified by the state must prove their identity with documentation.

Mary-Jo Criswell, 71, who, like Ms. Williams is an Indiana voter cited in the case before the Supreme Court, had her vote thrown out in November after she was told the identification she had used in previous elections — a bank card with a photograph, a utility bill and a phone bill — no longer sufficed.

“It was particularly galling for me since I was a former voting precinct committeewoman and I, of all people, should not be missing an election,” said Ms. Criswell, who is a Democrat.