Winston-Salem Journal Editorial
Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether Indiana’s harsh voter-identification law is constitutional. Let’s hope that at least five justices remember that the Constitution is built on the principle of free elections.

Indiana, Georgia and Florida are the only states that require voters to present a government-issued identification card each time they vote. That requirement has created a barrier to voting for the poor, disabled and elderly.

Some people might think that a government-issued photo ID is no big deal. And for most of us it isn’t. One judge in a lower-court opinion even said, in upholding the constitutionality of the law, that everyone in the courtroom that day needed such a card to get through courthouse security.

“It is exceedingly difficult to maneuver in today’s America without a photo ID,” Judge Richard A. Posner wrote a year ago for the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court.

Obviously, Posner doesn’t live in a nursing home, but one of the litigants in Indiana, who had voted there for 10 years and who personally knew all of the precinct officials, was denied her right to vote - because she didn’t have the right kind of ID. That is absurd.

This might come as a huge surprise to many in the middle class, but a sizable number of Americans don’t have a government-photo ID. Studies have found that between 4 percent and 13 percent of registered voters in these three states do not have the right kind of ID.

The people who write these laws often don’t understand how the poor and elderly live. They don’t know that they have no need for a driver’s license, passport or other such ID. They argue that an ID can be acquired for a small fee and just a couple of hours worth of time. But these lawmakers aren’t responsible for finding a ride to City Hall or the motor-vehicles office. They don’t understand how, to a poor person on a fixed income, a $10 fee for a license or similar ID is a lot of money.

Supporters of these harsh voter-identification laws say they are needed to prevent fraud. But the truth is that voter fraud is not a major problem in the United States. Indiana has no recorded cases of the kind of problem legislators said they were trying to solve when they passed the law.

The fraud concern is all a smokescreen by Republican politicians who see this as a way of suppressing the vote of minorities, the poor and the elderly, all of whom vote more heavily Democratic than Republican.

The Supreme Court will have a chance some time in the next six months to rule in favor of all American citizens. By striking down these harsh laws and leaving in place more sensible voter-identification laws, the justices will be recognizing that the Constitution starts with Americans of all ages, income levels and races exercising their right to vote.