Indiana Voter ID Law Ruled Unconstitutional

[Gothmog]

This is really nice to see http://www.indystar.com/article/20090917/NEWS05/909170487/Court+knocks+out+state+voter+ID+law

The Indiana Court of Appeals today declared Indiana's voter ID law unconstitutional because it does not apply uniformly to all voters.

The three-judge panel unanimously held that the requirement that voters present government-issued photo identification at the polls runs afoul of the Indiana Constitution's "Equal Privileges and Immunities Clause," which provides: "The General Assembly shall not grant to any citizen, or class of citizens, privileges or immunities which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens."

Two reasons were cited by the Court of Appeals: the law doesn't require absentee voters to provide an affidavit affirming their identity even while requiring photo identification for in-person voters; and the law exempts residents of state-licensed care facilities from the ID requirement if their facility happens to be a polling place.

[virgogal]

1. Good decision.

[Gothmog]

2. Texas dodged one of these Voter Suppression Law

Texas just avoided adopting one of these stupid laws. The Republicans in the Texas Senate changed the rules so that the Democrats could not filibuster against such law and it was up to some Democratic heroes in the Texas House to keep this stupid idea from becoming law. One of the examples used to justify this stupid law was the Indiana voter id law where it is okay to keep nuns from voting. In fact the Indiana Sec. of State testified in favor of the GOP attempt to suppress votes and admitted that most of the nuns who were denied the right to vote never satisfied the strict and stupid requirements of the Indiana law.

Here is a link to the actual opinion which actually mentions the nuns not being allowed to vote http://www.in.gov/judiciary/opinions/pdf/09170901par.pdf

Assuming that the Indiana Supreme Court does not overturn this case, the only way around this decision would be for the Indiana legislature to restrict the right to cast absentee ballots which the republicans will not allow. The whole purpose for these laws is restrict Democratic voter turnout and restricting absentee voting would cut into republican voter turnout.