Another court (the Michigan Supreme Court) has upheld a photo identification requirement for voting. Last year, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Indiana photo identification requirement. The one injunction (not surprisingly by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals) that made its way to the United States Supreme Court was vacated by it.
Americans and Georgians remain concerned about the integrity of the voting process. Beginning with the 2000 Presidential Election (and its hanging chads) and continuing through the recent immigration debate (which assumes twelve to fifteen million illegal immigrants), there is good reason for this concern. Notwithstanding the media portrayals otherwise, it has been and continues to be a bipartisan concern.
Indeed, the integrity of American elections was the subject of the bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform. Former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker co-chaired that Commission. The main task of the Commission was to consider reforms that would build confidence in U.S. Elections.
In upholding Indiana’s photo identification law, the federal judge summarized the conclusions of the Commission’s report as follows: “The report from the Commission on Federal Election Reform (known as the Baker-Carter Commission) recently concluded that there is no doubt that [in-person voter fraud] occurs.”
Significantly, the dynamics underlying voter fraud are getting worse. The number of non-citizens in the United States is steadily increasing at an alarming rate. Efforts to involve them in the voting process in Georgia are well documented. Of course, it only takes a few votes to make a big difference. As the margins in elections dwindle (as most recently reflected in the Tenth Congressional District runoff election in Georgia), the impact of each illegal vote is magnified (and the votes of legal voters are diluted.) With control of the Presidency, the Congress, governorships, state legislatures, county commissions, and local boards at play in 2008, the stakes (and consequential incentive for overzealous political activists) will increase substantially.
Against the backdrop of a worsening voter fraud problem, the ability to detect fraud has decreased. As the number of voters increase and precincts get larger, the ability to detect in person voter fraud decreases. In today’s environment, the need for prevention of voter fraud has never been greater. Yet, in the words of one judge, “[w]ithout requiring a photo ID, there is little chance of preventing this kind of fraud because busy poll workers are unlikely to scrutinize signatures carefully and argue with people who deny having forged someone else’s signature.”
This problem is even worse in a state like Georgia that uses electronic voting without a verifiable paper audit trail. Unlike systems with an audit paper trail, a fraudulent ballot once cast on an electronic voting machine on election day cannot be removed once it is cast, even if it is determined to be invalid because of voter fraud. Instead, once the ballot is cast, the only remedy in Georgia elections if the number of fraudulent ballots exceeds the margin of victory is a new election, as unfair to candidates as it is to voters who follow the rules. It is also expensive. Accordingly, in a state like Georgia, prevention of voter fraud is even more important. Although opponents to photo identification will rarely admit it, the fact is that the right to vote can be denied as much by fraud as any restriction on voting.
In Georgia, it is easier to vote under the recent election laws which included a photo ID requirement, than under the old law. In Georgia, a voter can drive to the polls and present their driver’s license and vote. If they cannot drive, then they can ask for a no-excuse absentee ballot and vote from the comfort of their home. If they want to vote in person, they can get a free voter identification photo ID at the same place where they register to vote. If they do not have a photo ID or forget their photo ID when they go to vote, they can vote a provisional ballot and return with their ID within 48 hours. It is time to implement Georgia’s photo identification law.