‘Hey RI, $26 Is a Small Price to Pay for Voting’
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Who knew presenting ID when you go to vote would become a “discrimination” issue? In Rhode Island it has. Last week, Governor Chafee signed into law a bill requiring all voters to present a photo ID when they vote. Before that, a few community groups already were calling the law discriminatory. GoLocal reported back in May, “twenty organizations held a press conference on the steps of the Statehouse Wednesday where they criticized the Senate Judiciary Committee’s passage of a bill requiring voters to show a photo ID.”
Twenty organizations felt that presenting a photo that is issued by the state identifying you as the person who is listed on the voting list was so deplorable that they rallied at the Statehouse. Among the luminous groups present included the League of Women Voters, the NAACP, the ACLU (of course), and Ocean State Action. Kate Brock of OSA believes “This bill will only serve to suppress voter turnout and will do so at a great cost to the state.”
Suppress voter turnout? Costly to the state? Say what?!?! If you go to the DMV Website, you can take a look at the ‘cost’ to purchase a non-driving identification card. Here’s a quote from the Web site:
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTYou can apply for a non-driver identification card at any Division of Motor Vehicles office. The cards are valid for five years and cost $26.50. Residents 59 and older receive their identifications cards for free.
$26.50. Twenty-six dollars and fifty cents. To put that in perspective if you don’t have an ID card today and need to furnish one by November 6, 2012 you’ll need to save six(6) cents each day for the next 482 days in order to have $26.50 to purchase an ID card. Since you’ll need to register perhaps 60 days before the general election, maybe you’ll need to save ten (10) cents a day. If there are people who are unable to afford approximately $3.00 a month to purchase an ID card, we’ve got larger problems than voter fraud.
For everyone 59 or older, they’ll receive theirs for FREE. F-R-E-E!!
But here’s something I didn’t tell you – with the new voter ID law the Secretary of State’s office will now have to provide voter ID cards for free to all. So, not only will it be free for everyone 59 and over, it will be free to everyone who is a registered voter but doesn’t currently have a valid photo ID!? So where’s the concern as there is nothing cheaper than free? Did I mention that the ID’s would be free?
Brock believes Voter ID law a barrier to voting
I sent an e-mail out to OSA last week seeking to understand why they were against a bill that wasn’t requiring people to own property, descendants of registered voters, be white males, or anything of the kind in order to vote. Instead, the voter ID law requires people to prove they are who they say they are.
No more, no less. Seems like a reasonable request, right? Here’s what Brock had to say:
Approximately 11% of Americans do not have valid photo identification, and disproportionate number of those people are low income voters, people of color, the elderly, students and people with disabilities. In fact, 18% of Americans over the age of 65, 15% of low income voters, and a quarter of African American voters do not have photo identification (see attached Demos report for sources.)
While the Secretary of State's office is required to provide free voter ID cards, no ID is really free. One must show supporting documents, such as a birth certificate to receive one. Birth certificates cost money, time and often require a photo ID to obtain. As someone who has entered the netherworld of being ID-less, re-assembling the appropriate identification is a long, drawn out and costly process. One that will likely mean that otherwise eligible voters do not turn out to the polls when this law is fully implemented in 2014. [emphasis added]
The arc of American history has been on the side of reducing barriers to voting, to guarantee all citizens the right to vote. Hard fought battles were waged, to eliminate property ownership requirements, and to guarantee women and people of color the right to vote. We struck poll taxes, and literacy tests as undemocratic. It is troubling to see this step backwards.
People ain’t that poor
I find a number of things troubling with Brock’s assessment of the Voter ID law, but it’s probably best summed by this – people ain’t that poor! If the Secretary of State is required to provide FREE voter ID cards, people, even low income earners should be able to afford that.
Brock countered that supporting documents such as a birth certificate would also be required and I’m assuming that she doesn’t believe a significant number of people within the low-income community have this documentation or the means to get it by 2014 (3+ years) when the law will be fully implemented.
Really?
Let’s not forget that right wing champion, Harold Metts, sponsored this legislation saying, “it's about strengthening the public's faith in the system [that] must be above reproach.” Metts and I have not always agreed on all of the issues, but from my time as a student teacher at Central High School in 1999 when Metts was a vice principal there, I can say without hesitation that he always does what he feels is best for the community he’s serving. To find Metts and the NAACP on opposite ends of the spectrum is fascinating. If I were a low income person and particularly to my fellow people of color, I’d be insulted by much of Brock’s commentary. I’d be thinking, “Does she really believe I’m that poor and that irresponsible that I wouldn’t have documentation saying I’m an American?” From her comments it is not difficult to make that logical leap.
People may be poor, but that doesn’t mean they’re irresponsible
Brock likens the voter ID law to moving towards the old Jim Crow laws that were passed deliberately to bar people from voting. This bill isn’t doing that. It’s seeking to protect against voter fraud. But, I get the feeling that any bill or law which requires more responsibility from low income citizens leads to an immediate negative reaction by many community groups. It’s as if asking everyone to be responsible is ‘discrimination’ because low income people can’t afford to be…well, responsible. It shouldn’t be difficult for you to see how offensive that sounds.
Nonetheless, Brock calls this bill a ‘barrier’ to voting, but in reality the bill is asking people to take responsibility for their identity. From her comments, it seems as though responsibility should not be within the ‘dictionary’ of people who live below the poverty line. Within the black community, we have a saying – just because you’re poor it doesn’t mean you have to live in trash. In other words, take care of what you have regardless of how much money you’re making.
Brock and others who have railed against this bill are, once again, doing a disservice to their constituents however well-intentioned. Poor people CAN provide documentation proving their citizenship and instead of seeing the law as a barrier to voting, take it for what it is – a way to protect against voter fraud.
Poor people can’t afford BMW’s, yachts, beach homes on the Cape, and other luxury items. But, to insinuate that they cannot afford to take ownership of their identity demeans them and demeans the meaning of a citizen. It’s this type of thinking that is crippling the urban community and I’m glad that at least one community advocate believes in his fellow man to be able to provide documentation proving their citizenship.
Because poor people simply ain’t that poor.
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Don Roach is a member of the RI Young Republicans. He welcomes comments to his articles at [email protected].
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