Half of all voter supression laws are sponsored by ALEC members
A growing number of conservative Republican state legislators worked fervently during the past two years to enact laws requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls.
Lawmakers proposed 62 photo ID bills in 37 states in the 2011 and 2012 sessions, with multiple bills introduced in some states. Ten states have passed strict photo ID laws since 2008, though several may not be in effect in November because of legal challenges.A News21 analysis found that more than half of the 62 bills were sponsored by members or conference attendees of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a Washington, D.C., tax-exempt organization.
At ALEC’s annual conferences, legislators, nonprofits and corporations work together without direct public input to develop bills that promote smaller government.
The group’s Public Safety and Elections Task Force at the 2009 Atlanta meeting approved the ‘Voter ID Act,’ a photo ID bill modeled on Indiana and Georgia laws.
The task force convened in committees at the downtown Hyatt Regency Atlanta that July. Arkansas state Rep. Dan Greenberg, Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce and Indiana state Rep. Bill Ruppel (three Republicans now out of office) led drafting and discussion of the Voter ID Act.
Hey, Russell Pearce appears in this narrative. Things can only go downhill from here.
‘By no means do I want to disenfranchise anyone,’ said Colorado Republican state Rep. Libby Szabo whose ID bills have failed the last two years in the state’s Democratic senate.
‘I can’t speak for each individual person,’ Szabo said, ‘but it seems to me in today’s mobile society people have been able to manage transportation options for other necessary services.’
Szabo, an ALEC member, said she did not know ALEC had a model photo ID bill prior to submitting her legislation.
Yes, and when I joined the Army I never thought I’d be sent to Iraq.