In Legislatures and Courtrooms, Busy Weeks Ahead for Voter ID
In an election year dominated by battles over health care mandates, tax rates, and rising gasoline prices, it’s the mechanics of voting - and who’ll get to vote in November - that’s getting full-time attention from state legislators, election lawyers, and judges.
In the latest example, the Virginia state Senate is headed for a vote Friday on a new voter identification requirement - one more indication that the voter ID controversy will keep boiling in legislatures and in the courts right up to Election Day.
These new voter ID laws are being proposed almost exclusively by Republican legislators and governors in states throughout the nation, spawning both litigation and angry rhetoric from Democrats.
“All of a sudden after the 2008 election, these (voter ID laws) miraculously appear,” said Rep. Frederica Wilson, D- Fla. at a recent anti-voter ID event at the Capitol. “Why? Because we have a black president in the White House and it is to stop all of the people of color from … coming out to vote, because they (the proponents of voter ID laws) know who they are targeting …”
Here’s the status of some recently enacted voter ID laws and states where such laws might be considered this year