Voter ID Laws Under Federal Review
Thursday, December 15, 2011
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is making recently passed voter ID laws a top priority, raising questions about whether the Obama administration will sue several states in an attempt to block implementation leading up to the 2012 election.
Fourteen states, including Rhode Island, have passed some form of voter ID legislation over the last year. The Ocean State’s law, enacted by the overwhelmingly Democratic legislature, is considered to be the most liberal in the country. But civil rights groups have still argued that it will disenfranchise several blocks of voters, including the elderly, minorities and the poor.
In a speech delivered Tuesday, Holder urged voters to “call on our political parties to resist the temptation to suppress certain votes in the hope of attaining electoral success and, instead, encourage and work with the parties to achieve this success by appealing to more voters.”
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Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, several states with a history of voter discrimination must apply with the Department of the Justice to change voting laws. Holder said the DOJ is looking at laws in several swing states.
“Since January, more than a dozen states have advanced new voting measures,” Holder said. “Some of these new laws are currently under review by the Justice Department, based on our obligations under the Voting Rights Act. Texas and South Carolina, for example, have enacted laws establishing new photo identification requirements that we’re reviewing. We’re also examining a number of changes that Florida has made to its electoral process, including changes to the procedures governing third-party voter registration organizations, as well as changes to early voting procedures, including the number of days in the early voting period.”
Secretary of State Ralph Mollis’ spokesman Chris Barnett said Rhode Island would not be subject to that portion of the Voting Rights Act. Barnett said the state can serve as a national model.
“We’re not surprised that the Attorney General’s criticism specifically excluded Rhode Island,” he said. “Our law is the most inclusive in the nation. No eligible voter will be denied the right to vote at the polls. The range of IDs that are acceptable, the right to vote by provisional ballot and the new no-excuse mail ballot option make Rhode Island a national model.”
Locals Raise Concern
Still, some local organizations continue to raise questions about the changes to voting laws. Last week, ten groups submitted testimony to Mollis’ office calling for significant changes to the way the state issues voter ID cards.
Their concern is that many of the acceptable forms of ID are more likely to be held by those that already have an ID and the elderly, minorities and poor may still struggle to have the right documents. The state maintains that it will have a mobile voter ID unit in order to make sure everyone who wants to vote has proper identification.
“Requiring the other nineteen acceptable documents to include a current date and address will severely limit the availability of these documents for people needing to qualify for a voter card,” the testimony said. “Public housing cards, student ID, insurance and drug discount cards, RIPTA bus passes, and ID documents by government homeless shelters, for example, are unlikely to have a current date or address or both. Indeed, the mere fact that an address is required largely eliminates their availability for anybody who is homeless.”
But Barnett pointed to a recent Brennan Center study which singled out Rhode Island’s legislation as being “significantly less restrictive and differs substantially from the others that passed this session.” He said the state should have no problems moving forward.
“While the Brennan Center estimates that Voter ID laws in other states will make it harder for millions of their voters to cast ballots in 2012, it specifically excluded Rhode Island because our ‘requirements are less onerous than those in other states,’” Barnett said.
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