Q&A: Voter ID
North Carolina lawmakers are drafting a law that will require voters to show identification when they go to the polls. WRAL News looks at the common questions raised about the idea, which has widespread bipartisan support.
Posted — UpdatedThis year, Republicans, who control the House and Senate, as well as Gov. Pat McCrory say they are dedicated to putting a voter ID requirement into place.
"I think requiring an ID to vote is a common-sense practice that over 80 percent of the people of North Carolina agree with," McCrory said during a recent news conference.
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The exception, {{a href="external_link-12226382" _fcksavedurl="external_link-12226382"}}according to the State Board of Elections, are those voters who did not use either a driver's license number or the last-four digits of their Social Security number{{/a}} to register to vote. From the state board:
If you are a first-time voter and you did not provide your North Carolina driver license or the last four digits of your Social Security number when you completed your voter registration application, or one or both of those numbers could not be validated, then you will need to provide ID the first time that you vote. If you are required to show ID, you must provide one the following:
- A current and valid photo identification or
- A copy of one of the following documents that shows your name and address: a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document.
Those laws range from states that require a photo ID to vote with no exceptions to states that require voters to show any of "a wide array of IDs that are acceptable for voting purposes, some of which do not include a photo." There are also some states that prefer a photo ID but allow voters to use an alternative method of identification if they do not have one.
The most important case to keep an eye on is {{a href="external_link-12226592" _fcksavedurl="external_link-12226592"}}Arizona v. The Inter Tribal Council of Arizona{{/a}}, which is examining conflicts between Arizona's voter ID law and federal voting laws.
The common theme in all those cases is that states must show that their voter ID requirements don't deprive legitimate voters of their right to vote.
"Because Indiana's (photo ID) 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," Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court.
That appears to be the standard North Carolina's law will have to clear, although it's unlikely there is any circumstance in which a newly enacted voter ID requirement doesn't go to court.
"No matter what they do, they will be sued," said Nathaniel Persily, professor of law and political science at Columbia University.
"The things that will make a voter ID law more legal as opposed to less legal is ensuring that the IDs are extremely easy and free to get and that there are fail safes for people who don't have ID," Persily said. The more likely that a legitimate voter will be blocked from voting, he said, the more likely the courts will take issue.
Another option to providing ID could be allowing the Division of Motor Vehicles to issue free or low-cost ID cards. Some versions of photo ID bills would allow identifications issued by state university systems to count. Other variations would allow expired driver's licenses to prove someone's identity.
Other states have allowed alternative non-photo identifications to be used at the polls, but House Speaker Thom Tillis, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and McCrory said they would like to see a photo requirement.
The state board study matched the state's voter rolls against Division of Motor Vehicle records. It is fair to say that matching two huge databases like that is difficult. People may list their names differently in each – using a middle initial in one data set and their full middle name in another – or not record their name changes in both places, as sometimes happen when women get married.
Numbers from Georgia also show relatively low numbers of voters seeking the free identification cards provided for by law.
During a roundtable discussion earlier this year, John Fund of the National Review argued North Carolina would be doing people a favor by requiring them to get identification.
"You can't be part of the mainstream of American life, of American public life, without an ID," Fund said. He pointed to the example of not being able to open a bank account.
But Keisha Gaskins, senior counsel in the Brennan Center's Democracy Program, said last week that, just because voters are not seeking out the free ID cards, doesn't mean they don't need them. Health issues and hectic work schedules can keep people away from government offices, she said. Merely making IDs available isn't the same thing as making sure all voters have an appropriate ID. No state had taken that step, she said.
"If the government was actually getting people IDs, that would be a different issue," Gaskins said. Speaking of the Georgia law and the 2011 North Carolina proposal, she said, "This is not an aggressive government program going out and getting people IDs, making sure you have them in time for the election."
Legislative Republicans, including House Elections Committee Chairman David Lewis say they are committed to the "gold standard" of everyone having an ID who needs one to vote.
"For those folks out there who don't currently have a photo ID, we believe that, with enough time and enough outreach and enough devotion to the process ... we'll be able to assure that everybody has the chance to vote," said Lewis, R-Harnett.
However, the most common reason to enact a voter ID law is that proponents say it will prevent fraud at the polls. Specifically, they say, it will prevent people from voting in the names of other valid voters, dead people or casting a ballot for a name that was registered fraudulently.
A {{a href="external_link-12227621" _fcksavedurl="external_link-12227621"}}News 21 reporting project{{/a}} found that of 2,068 election fraud cases identified since 2000, 10 cases involved the type of in-person voter impersonation voter ID is meant to curtail.
"It's a negligible amount, but it's not zero," Gaskins said. At least one case of in-person voter fraud has been identified in North Carolina. But other cases of election fraud would not have been stopped by voter ID. For example, voter ID would not have stopped three Wake County voters who tried to vote twice in 2008.
"I would say you don't have many cases of people being charged or convicted of voter fraud because it's so easy to do and so hard to prove under the current laws that we have," Lewis said during a recent taping of "On the Record."
"When you talk to (district attorneys) and law enforcement around the state, they will tell you, 'Hey, this is only a Class I felony to do this at the most. We have more important things to do.'"
"It's imaginary fraud against invisible voters," he said.
In response to this, critics of voter ID policies say that, just because a measure is popular, doesn't mean the majority should get to limit the rights of a minority population.
"Perhaps there needs to be another poll to survey the people and ask the people if they would like to have their constitutional rights denied," Rep. Alma Adams, D-Greensboro, said in a recent news conference.
"The idea that 10 percent of North Carolinians aren't going to be able to vote because of this is ridiculous," Persily said.
That said, there's some question as to whether some populations might be more likely not to have an identification card and therefore might have a harder time voting. The {{a href="blogpost-9772426" _fcksavedurl="blogpost-9772426"}}Board of Elections study suggested{{/a}} women, minorities, elderly voters and college students might be more likely to lack the required identification.
Other questions revolve around whether poll workers would be adept at spotting fake identifications or whether the addition of an identification requirement will slow down the process for everyone.
Aside from the practical questions of whether an ID requirement will do any good and can be put in place effectively, there are more scholarly arguments.
Rep. Mickey Michaux, D-Durham, said that qualifications to vote are set out by the federal and state constitutions. All the state constitution requires, he said, is that a person be a citizen, reside in the state for more than 30 days and not be disqualified from voting by being a felon. Requiring an ID, he said, amounts to adding another qualification to vote.
"The constitution says the General Assembly can effect laws involving registration, but it doesn't say that you can do law regarding voting," Michaux said. "A photo ID is a qualification for voting, but it's not in the constitution."
Jeanette Doran, executive director and general counsel for the Institute for Constitutional Law, takes issue with that interpretation. Currently, she said, voters are required to sign an attestation that they are who they say they are. She likened the the photo ID requirement to that attestation.
"Requiring a photo ID is simply requiring proof of the qualifications set out in the constitution," she said.
However, {{a href="external_link-11247749" _fcksavedurl="external_link-11247749"}}a fiscal note attached to the 2011 voter ID bill{{/a}} suggested the initial cost of providing free IDs to those who need them might be around $2 million in the first year, with smaller ongoing costs in the following years. The fiscal note did not estimate the cost of prosecuting and incarcerating more people who might be caught perpetrating voter fraud.
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