By: Marc H. Morial
President and CEO,
National Urban League
Just two months after overwhelmingly passing the Voting Rights Act
Reauthorization of 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives recently
reversed its commitment to ensuring the right to vote for all.
Under legislation passed recently, they want U.S. citizens to show proof
of their citizenship to vote and then show photo I.D. when they cast
their ballots. Introduced by Illinois Republican Rep. Henry Hyde, the
bill, entitled the Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006 (H.R. 4844),
passed the House by a vote of 228 to 195.
In the process, lawmakers are threatening to disenfranchise thousands of
elderly, poor and minority Americans by burdening them with costly and
inconvenient requirements.
Only a quarter of eligible voters have passports, which cost $97 to
obtain, and naturalization papers used to prove citizenship cost $210 to
be replaced. An estimated 6 to 12 percent of voters do not have
government-issued photo identification, according to the U.S. Department
of Transportation.
People of color, people with disabilities, the elderly, young, and
people who live in poverty are among the groups least likely to have
documents proving their citizenship. In certain parts of the United
States, elderly African Americans and many Native Americans were born at
home, under the care of midwives, and do not possess birth certificates.
According to a University of Wisconsin study from June, 2005, 23 percent
of persons aged 65 and older in that state did not have driver's
licenses or photo identification. It also found that less than half of
African American men in Milwaukee County had valid driver's licenses.
H.R. 4844, while appealing on the surface, poses one of the greatest
threats to fair and equal voting rights today. We should be focusing on
encouraging full participation of our citizenry, not finding new ways to
hinder the precious right to vote.
While it would be great if all citizens had documents such as a
passport or a birth certificate readily available, the truth is that
many do not, which means that they would have to pay for them in order
to vote.
Four states – Georgia, Missouri, Indiana and Arizona – have enacted laws
requiring photo ID to vote. In two of those states, federal courts have
struck them down as unconstitutional. In 2005, a federal judge in
Georgia characterized the requirement as a poll tax. I can't agree more:
It's a 21st Century poll tax.
The bill's proponents maintain they're trying to crack down on voting
fraud. But I would say they are perpetuating the greatest fraud of all.
They're trying to prevent eligible Americans from exercising their most
sacred and important civil right.
Falsely claiming citizenship and voting fraudulently have long been
federal offenses. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Americans
are as likely to commit election fraud as they are getting killed by
lightening.
Since October of 2002, a total of 86 U.S. residents have been convicted
of federal election fraud, while nearly 197,000,000 ballots have been
cast in general elections.
In Ohio, a statewide survey found four instances of ineligible persons
voting or attempting to vote in 2002 and 2004, out of 9,078,728 votes
cast – a rate of 0.00004%.
Cathy Cox, the secretary of state for Georgia, has admitted that she
could not recall one documented case of voter impersonation at the polls
during her nine years as the state's top election official. It is
obvious that our current laws against voting fraud work when properly
enforced.
Even if voters have valid ID, many eligible voters will be turned away
because H.R. 4844 would place an inordinate amount of discretion in the
hands of overworked and sometimes poorly trained poll workers.
Deciding whether a voter matches or does not match the photo in an ID
card – which can be many years old – is a very subjective process and
prone to mistakes.
What U.S. House members want to demand of Americans is far more than
what is required of them to run for office. All most congressional
candidates have to do when declaring their candidacy is sign a pledge
that they are U.S. citizens – much like what voters sign when
registering to vote.
Shouldn't Congress be a little more worried about the state of
electronic voting machines? It seems to me that they're the cause of
more voting irregularities than individual voting fraud.
With midterm elections approaching, I can only surmise that House
lawmakers are trying to improve their political prospects with
constituents concerned with illegal immigration. Instead of producing
viable immigration reform, the U.S. House decided to try to crack down
on the few illegal aliens who might be voting in federal elections. Now
that's not what I consider government efficiency.
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