House OKs strict voter ID bill

Government-issued photo would be required; GOP cites ballot integrity as Dems fear for rights. Under Senate Bill 483, Indiana would be the first, and so far only, U.S. state to require voters to show a photo ID issued by the state or federal government. Other state legislatures, including Georgia's, are debating such legislation. According to Kristi Robertson, co-director of the Indiana Election Division, some states, require voters to show a photo ID before voting but allow for some alternatives, such as a signed affidavit. Other states require some identification at the polls but not necessarily a photo ID. Instead, voters can show items such as a utility bill, Social Security card or credit card, Robertson said.

House OKs strict voter ID bill
By Mary Beth Schneider
mary.beth.schneider@indystar.com
March 22, 2005

Indiana would have the strictest voter identification laws in the nation under a bill approved Monday by the House after three hours of bitter partisan debate.

"This is definitely bloody Monday," said Rep. Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis.

Senate Bill 483 would require voters to show a photo ID issued by either Indiana state government or the federal government before they can cast their ballots. Expired IDs would be accepted if they had expired after the most recent general election.

Rep. Tim Brown, the Crawfordsville Republican who sponsored the measure, said it is needed to instill voter confidence.

But 18 House Democrats went to the microphone to charge that the bill will take away the right of some people to vote at all. Several accused Republicans of taking part in a nationwide GOP effort to suppress the votes of minorities. And they invoked both the spirit of the civil rights movement and the shadow of racism and the Ku Klux Klan to make their case.

In the end, the bill passed 52-45, with every Republican voting for it and every Democrat present voting against it.

The measure previously passed the Senate. If the Senate goes along with changes made by the House, it will go to Gov. Mitch Daniels.

The issue isn't over, Democrats said. A lawsuit challenging the bill is certain, said House Minority Leader Russ Stilwell, D-Boonville.

"I think it's assured it will end up in court," Stilwell said.

While a handful of other states have or are implementing laws to require photo IDs, only Indiana does not allow voters to sign affidavits attesting to their identities if they do not have the required ID. Under the bill, a voter without the ID would be able to cast a provisional ballot, but it would not be counted unless the voter showed the ID at the county clerk's office within six days or signed a statement expressing religious objections to a photograph.

Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, described the issue as "the most challenging and controversial issue the House will face this year. It's going to create a chasm that will be very difficult to close."

Democrats' anger over the issue had contributed to an earlier walkout that killed a House version and many other bills earlier this month. Stilwell, though, said that this time, Democrats decided "we were going to take our emotions to the floor and let our emotions pour out."

They did.

"I wonder if D.C. Stephenson's ghost is lurking around here somewhere," Rep. Mae Dickinson, D-Indianapolis, said, referring to the KKK Grand Dragon who was powerful in Indiana in the 1920s.

Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, called the bill "a red-handed, deliberate attempt to keep people from voting, and it comes, I believe, straight from that genius (President Bush adviser) Karl Rove out of Washington, D.C. This is a lousy way to make public policy."

Rep. David Orentlicher, D-Indianapolis, called the bill "mean-spirited and pathetic. This bill is an affront to basic democratic values." And Rep. John Day, D-Indianapolis, called it "the most harmful election bill I have ever seen."

Rep. Luke Messer, the Shelbyville Republican who also is executive director of the Indiana Republican Party, said Democratic accusations that this was part of a GOP strategy to suppress the vote were "patently false."

"This bill is about ballot integrity, not voter suppression," Messer said.

Many Democrats invoked the lives lost on the battlefield, and in the civil rights struggle, to ensure the right to vote. And they said Republicans had not demonstrated any cases of voter fraud that proved a need for the law.

Messer said Republicans share in the condemnation of racism and any attempt to keep qualified people from voting. But, he said, the only current check on whether a voter is qualified is comparing his or her signature to the voter's signature in the logs at each polling place.

That, he said, "is so lax it makes it really impossible to prove any case of fraud."

Rep. Ed Mahern, D-Indianapolis, said the bill violates Indiana's constitutional guarantee that "all elections shall be free and equal" because it would mean some people would have to pay to get their birth certificate in order to get a photo ID, and it doesn't treat all voters the same.

The bill exempts those patients of nursing homes that also are polling places on election days but does not exempt people in other nursing homes or in home health care. The bill also does not require people casting absentee ballots, including those who cast them at their county clerk's office, to show ID.

"I don't think that's equal at all," Mahern said. "This bill will disenfranchise voters of the state of Indiana, and we all know it."

But Rep. Kathy Richardson, R-Noblesville, said the bill "is not about losing someone's right to vote. It's about protecting that right."

"Republicans and Democrats both have very strong feelings about this issue," she said. "My caucus is just as passionate about this issue as your caucus is. You say this will be the toughest protection of votes in the country. I say congratulations to us."

http://www.indystar.com/articles/9/230963-8349-103.html