Voter ID Battle

progressive

Voter ID Battle

(Mon, 12 May 2008 14:56:28 -0500 (CDT)) --- Institute for Public Accuracy 915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 *

www.accuracy.org

ipa@accuracy.org
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Monday, May 12, 2008

Voter ID Battle

The lead story in today's New York Times reports: "The battle over
voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are
expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable
election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone
registering to vote.

"The measure would allow far more rigorous demands than the voter ID
requirement recently upheld by the Supreme Court, in which voters had to
prove their identity with a government-issued card. ...

"In Arizona, the only state that requires proof of citizenship to
register to vote, more than 38,000 voter registration applications have
been thrown out since the state adopted its measure in 2004."

JOHN HICKEY, moprovote@mindspring.com
Hickey is the executive director of the Missouri Progressive Vote
Coalition. He said today: "The proposed amendment is similar to a 2006
law that the state supreme court struck down. The secretary of state
estimated in 2006 that it would have disfranchised 240,000 registered
voters.
"Particularly hard hit would be people with disabilities -- since
they frequently don't have drivers licenses, African Americans who are
less likely to have cars (and therefore licenses) and Katrina survivors,
many of whom have ended up in Missouri.
"This amendment would mean that people could no longer use their
voter ID card (which is mailed to voters and doesn't have a picture),
utility bill, drivers license from another state or student ID from a
private school as identification to vote. The amendment's backers can
offer no examples of voter ID fraud. There are very rare cases of
absentee voter fraud -- which the amendment does not address."

LINDA BROWN, linda@azadvocacy.org,

www.azadvocacy.org

Brown is the executive director of the Arizona Advocacy Network. She
said today: "Shirley Freeda Preiss is a sharp and delightful 97-year-old
who has voted in every presidential election since FDR's first. She was
born at home in Clinton, Kentucky in 1910 and never had a birth
certificate. She never left the country so she has never needed a
passport, and she no longer has a drivers license. She has a Social
Security card and a Medicare card, neither of which are acceptable proof
of citizenship in Arizona. She moved to Arizona so her son, a World War
II veteran, and his wife could help look after her.
"They have a file an inch thick documenting her attempts to register
to vote since moving to Arizona two years ago. But because she cannot
prove her citizenship to the satisfaction of the state, it is likely
that this will be the first presidential election she will miss since
she first registered to vote more than 75 years ago. She was very upset
when she was denied the opportunity to vote for the first female major
party candidate for president in February's presidential preference
election. In the drive to thwart mythical voter fraud, Shirley Preiss is
collateral damage.
"Arizona has a long, shameful tradition of voter suppression. The
Voting Rights Act of 1965 actually names Arizona as one of the states
that can't pass laws on voting without approval from the Department of
Justice. When voters passed the 2004 ballot initiative that restricted
voting, the career attorneys at the Justice Department wanted to block
it, but they were overruled by the political appointees."

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

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