Democrats challenge new Mo. voter ID law

[deadparrot]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Officials in Missouri's two largest cities filed a lawsuit Monday to block a new state law requiring voters to show photo identification.

Under the law, voters starting this November will need a photo ID issued by either the state of federal government, such as a driver's license, to cast a regular ballot. Those lacking IDs can cast provisional ballots, which would count if their signatures matched those on file with election authorities.

Republican Gov. Matt Blunt has praised the new law as a way to build public trust in elections.

But the Democratic leaders in St. Louis and Kansas City who sued say the law violates a state constitutional provision against imposing costs on local governments without providing state funding. Their lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction blocking the law from being enforced and class-action status.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060717/ap_on_el_ge/voter_id

[RayOfHope]

1. Good. Hopefully something can be done

before the Nov elections.

[catmandu57]

2. Finally

I've been anticipating this lawsuit since babydoc signed the law. I was afraid we'd have to wait until someone was denied their right to vote in November.

[nealmhughes]

3. Forced picture ID in order to vote after paying the fee = a poll tax.

By its very definition, a fee charged universally at the same rate to all eligible to vote, it is a poll tax, and therefore unconstitutional.

There is no denying the truth. It is a poll tax, which actually stems from the archaic English word for "head", in that it was a universal tax on every head. Not paying this tax resulted in removal from the franchisement lists, i.e., one could not go to the "polls."

The Constitution prohibits poll taxes as a voting requirement to vote.

If the states want these laws, then they have to provide free ID to everyone in their jurisdiction.
And it cannot be burdensome, or it will violate the spirit of law! I.e., one cannot say, OK, free IDs for all, but only at 2pm on Wednesday after a certified birth certificate, a passport or drivers license, and you have to wait in the sun until we get to you...

Those who want to restrict the vote are very, very good at parsing legal opinions and statutes to suit their evil means.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

4. Jimmy Carter helped create this situation. I wonder what he has to say

about it now.

(1) The 2001 Carter-Ford Commission report--on which the Help America Vote Act of 2002 was based-- provided for no mandatory national standard for state procedures in federal elections.

(2) The 2005 Carter-Baker Commission report explicitly calls for photo-ID requirements to be imposed nationwide. See http://electionupdates.caltech.edu/2005/09/more-on-carter-baker-report.htm .

The Commission ignored evidence that possibly more than 1,000 legitimate votes would be suppressed for every fraudulent vote deterred by photo-id requirements . See http://www.carterbakerdissent.com

In Wisconsin, African-Americans and Latinos are THREE TIMES less likely to have driver licenses] than whites. (See http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/ETI/barriers/DriversLicense.pdf )

Who's more likely to have picture ID when they get to the pools: Republican suburbanites who DROVE there, or Democrats who walked to the polls in their dense urban neighborhoods?