April 28, 2008

"Supreme Court upholds photo ID law for voters in Indiana"

"The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can require voters to produce photo identification without violating their constitutional rights, validating Republican-inspired voter ID laws.

In a splintered 6-3 ruling, the court upheld Indiana's strict photo ID requirement, which Democrats and civil rights groups said would deter poor, older and minority voters from casting ballots. Its backers said it was needed to deter fraud.

It was the most important voting rights case since the Bush v. Gore dispute that sealed the 2000 election for George W. Bush mirrored.

The law "is amply justified by the valid interest in protecting 'the integrity and reliability of the electoral process,'" Justice John Paul Stevens said in an opinion that was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy.

Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas also agreed with the outcome, but wrote separately.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented.

More than 20 states require some form of identification at the polls. Courts have upheld voter ID laws in Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, but struck down Missouri's. Tuesday's decision comes a week before Indiana's presidential primary."

The article is here.

The opinion can be found here.

At first blush, it appears that the fact that ID cards in Indiana are free, and that Indiana permits voters without IDs to cast provisional ballots and complete affidavits after the election that would result in their ballots being counted, were significant to the Court's holding.

Update: I find it s bit ironic that the only evidence of election fraud in Indiana that the Court could identify to uphold the polling place ID requirement involved fraud in the use of absentee ballots. Of course, the challenged law does nothing to address that problem.

Posted by Randy Riddle at April 28, 2008 07:29 AM