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Thursday, July 19, 2007
Law - Dormant Michigan voter ID law may now be enforced
From the Detroit Free Press:
Michiganders soon might have to show photo identification to vote, under a divided Michigan Supreme Court which endorsed a never-enforced 1996 law and reignited a contentious debate today.Some quotes from an editorial today in the Free Press :Democrats and the Detroit NAACP strongly denounced the decision and the law, which requires prospective voters to produce photo ID at polling stations, comparing it to a poll tax used in the past to keep black citizens from voting. * * *
The law was suspended before it ever took effect by then Attorney General Frank Kelley, a Democrat, after the statute won approval from a Republican-controlled Legislature and former Republican Gov. John Engler.
Wednesday's 5-2 Supreme Court decision showed the same partisan divide. * * *
If the law takes effect, Michigan would become one of 26 states with some form of voter ID law, a survey by electionline.org shows.
Only a handful of states, including Indiana, ask for photo ID. All the states, under the Help America Vote Act passed by Congress in the wake of the 2000 presidential election controversy, must require first-time voters who originally registered by mail to produce identification.
Dan Seligson, editor at electionline.org, said almost every voter ID bill in the nation has faced legal challenge. Most have survived, he said, but the more rigorous the ID requirement the more carefully it is scrutinized by courts. Indiana's photo ID law, which was upheld by a federal appeals court, could be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in its next term.
The Michigan Supreme Court's 5-2 party-line decision Wednesday that the state can require voters to show photo ID at the polls was not surprising, since the issue has been a bright-line divider of Republicans and Democrats for years.Rick Hasen of the Election Law Blog has an entry here. Hasen had posted a copy of the 121-page Micigan advisory opinion here.The court's Republican-nominated majority is right that pictured ID is not an unreasonable demand to make of voters, provided there are options apparent and readily available for those who lack ID to cast a ballot.
Democrats are right, though, that there is absolutely no evidence of the kind of widespread election fraud among voters that Republicans cite to justify this change. While there have been problems with equipment, counting, incompetent officials and intimidating "observers" at the polls, nothing suggests hordes of people are claiming to be someone else so they can vote multiple times.
It is also true that the people least likely to have pictured ID are the poor, who tend to vote Democratic. It is, however, the responsibility of Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, a Republican, as Michigan's elections chief, to make sure that every voter knows about the new requirement and every poll worker knows how to deal affirmatively with those who lack ID. Voters can sign an affidavit of identity to cast a ballot. * * *
About 370,000 of Michigan's 7.1 million registered voters do not now have a driver's license or state ID card.
The state Supreme Court's ruling was "an advisory opinion" requested by legislative Republicans and, as such, cannot be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Democrats would have to start a new case in the federal system to keep the issue alive.
Courts in different states have issued differing opinions on whether pictured ID is a legal requirement. There are constitutional issues ripe for a definitive U.S. Supreme Court ruling; two cases from Indiana are pending there.
Indiana's cert petition in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. For background, start with this ILB entry from June 30th. Here is a list of the entries.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 19, 2007 10:24 AM
Posted to General Law Related