Kansas photo ID law risks stripping voters of their rights
Tuesday’s primary election is the first major run for Kansas’ unnecessary and restrictive photo ID requirement.
Certainly everyone favors a clean election decided by legally eligible voters. Kansas voters already swear when they sign the voting books that they are in fact who they claim to be and legally registered, punishable by law if it is not so.
But the new photo ID law implies that fraud is significant, and somehow a photo ID will stop the illegal mass of voters taking advantage of America’s great democracy.
The worriers should rest.
Kansas U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom reports no rush of voter fraud allegations since Kris Kobach took over the Secretary of State’s office, bringing his fear campaign with him. The only two problem voting cases forwarded to the U.S. Attorney in the last two years were initially brought by the previous Democratic secretary of state. Neither actually constituted voter fraud.
One case involved a farmer who owned land in two counties and erroneously thought he could vote in both places. He was prosecuted at the state level and received diversion and a fine. The second case involved a woman who cast an advance voting ballot, then moved to a different jurisdiction and tried to vote in person. Authorities advised her of her misdeed but didn’t prosecute.
The regrettable and real risk is that the photo ID requirement will lead some students, non-drivers (often poor and/or minority) and seniors to skip the polls rather than worry about whether they will be permitted to cast a ballot.
Spread the word: There are a number of permissable IDs.
They include driver’s licenses or nondriver’s ID cards issued by Kansas or another state, U.S. passports, concealed carry of handgun licenses issued by Kansas or another state, U.S. military ID, government employee badge or ID document, student ID issued by an accredited Kansas postsecondary educational institution, or public assistance ID card issued by a government office.
Those over age 65 may vote with an expired Kansas driver’s license. And Kansas is offering free non-driver IDs and birth certificates to those able to get to a state office.
Still, there’s a big catch.
The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law found that nearly 500,000 eligible voters in 10 states with voter ID laws do not have access to a vehicle and live more than 10 miles from the nearest ID-issuing office open more than two days a week. More specifically, 7,373 voting-age Kansans are in that boat.
The best rebuke to the state’s hyped election fraud concerns would be a huge turnout, especially by those clearly targeted to have difficulties. Registration for the Nov. 6 general election must be completed by Oct. 16.
Kansas lawmakers should be figuring out new ways to make it easier for more people to register, not more difficult. However, as of Jan. 1, 2013, new voter registrants will need to prove citizenship. There is nothing vague about the additional hurdle of a birth certificate to register. This is an attack on those who tend to vote more liberal: young, old and minority. The best counter-attack is for more Kansans to register and help others do so.
A small spring election in Kansas resulted in 45 ballots rejected because of no photo ID. Contrast those 45 denied ballots with the two cases of voter abuses reported to the U.S. attorney. As Grissom says, this law curtails a problem that doesn’t exist. “It seems to me the medicine is killing the patient,” he said.
Kansas risks becoming known as a state that disenfranchises its voters. The legislature should move to amend the law in January. Before then, Kansans must make the effort to register or update their registration online.
Roland Blaine
9 months, 2 weeks agoWhen you need some form of identification to do pretty much anything, how is it stripping the rights of voters to require ID?
Rick Adams
9 months, 2 weeks agoRoland,
That is a complete falsehood - unless you get a lot of tickets.
I have a 20 year old credit union account - no drivers license needed. I use my debit card for all my purchases - no drivers license needed. I own a 2000 car - no drivers license needed and I know better than to go stand in line for renewals. I bought a new car last fall out of state with a cashiers check - no drivers license needed. Car payments, cable bills, electrical bill, doctor visits - no drivers license needed.
What exactly are you doing that you need to flash this a lot ?
My right to vote pre dates every single activity that might require a drivers license so why make it harder especially when there is ZERO evidence of anyone other than folks who might vote in a fashion you do not like are impacted ?
Alex Carl
9 months, 2 weeks agoWhat are you doing with 2 cars and no drivers license
George Hunsucker
Northland
9 months, 2 weeks agoThis is just another opportunity for the lefties to “supposedly” defend the poor who the lefties “supposedly” care so much about. That is, as long as the poor keep reelecting them to office so the lefties can suck off the govt. teat some more…
For the life of me, I can’t see where it is so sinister to be required to show you are who you say you are to cast a vote. But I am not a smart leftie.
JR Beillenhouser
9 months, 2 weeks agoMe supporting voter ids protects my right to vote.
I want to ensure that my vote counts and is not offset by someone who should not be voting to begin with.
Rick Adams
9 months, 2 weeks agoI have drivers license and a passport and even my first college ID … I am just not asked for them EVER. I can even fly without them ( yes, yes you can - you just get a special search. I know ).
JR, That sounds great, are there any examples that show your concern is valid ?
The two examples that were quoted in the story would not have been helped/hurt/no-impact with/without an ID.
You just want to make it difficult for people who vote against the way you do.
You want to reduce illegal aliens, so do I. You want to reduce government spending, so do I. Both of these have demonstrated examples where it matters. But concern about hordes of inappropriate voting is just poppycock and only believed by other AFP`ers.
Phil Cardarella
9 months, 2 weeks agoDUH!
The sole purpose of these laws is to prevent the young, the old and minorities — all of whom are less likely to have the kind of ID required, but who are legally entitled to vote — from voting. Another thing those groups have in common is their tendency to vote Democratic.
THERE IS NO VOTER FRAUD TO COMBAT! It is a total fiction, made up to try to justify these laws.
The only FRAUD in this process is the lie being told to disenfranchise American citizens so that more Republicans can get elected..
If there is anyone out there who actually does not understand the issue — as opposed to the FOXNewsers who pretend to be that dense — consider this: Granma Jones has voted at the same place for 40 years. She does not drive, so she has no driver’s license. BUT, everybody at the polls knows her. She has her voter ID card sent to her home. THERE IS NO ACTUAL DOUBT WHO SHE IS OR THAT SHE IS A LAWFUL VOTER! But, in Kansas, she cannot vote. A citizen who is entitled to vote, but is denied that right IS a big deal.
Matt McKinley
9 months, 2 weeks agoVoter Fraud - Impossible!!
“After losing the court case, Royster filed an open records request to obtain the full voter list of who voted in the 40th District on Aug. 3. Those records raised even more questions about the election.
For example, the records identify four voters who are Rizzo supporters who, according to other public records, live outside the district.
Further, an analysis of the birth dates on the database of about 1,800 voters shows an anomaly: 53 of the voters, most with Somali-sounding names, list a birthday of Jan. 1.”
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_498eb9fd-e146-5986-878f-9c52a97a8f86.html
Bill Mccwiliams
9 months, 2 weeks agoI think both sides, the right and the left, do an equal amount of sucking off the government. It’s just that each side has a different way of going about it!
George Hunsucker
Northland
9 months, 2 weeks agoThat’s correct phi… We have no right to insure the legal people are voting. We should just put out a stack of ballots and let the honor system, as demonstrated in the lib bastion of Chicago, work….
What kind of law do you practice???
Rick Adams
9 months, 2 weeks agoMatt,
Good lord do you not read ?
The US Government assigns Jan 1 as their birth date . You win the booby prize of the day.
Quick google search would have shown you this. Funny … all `them Somalians. Probably all have IDs and not 1 are going to vote “R”.
On New Year’s Day, wish a ‘Happy Birthday’ to 202000 refugees … www.syracuse.com › News from The Post-Standard › CNY LifeJan 1, 2011 – A Fowler classmate who came from Somalia celebrates two birth dates. She said she was born Feb. 24, but the U.S. assigned Jan. 1 as her … …..
“The Jan. 1 birth date is the common birth date we assign,” said Marilu Cabrera, a spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security.
how funny
George Hunsucker
Northland
9 months, 2 weeks agoMaybe we will see a blog on this group of voters being denied their right. Oh, that’s right, these are merely servicepeople who the libs don’t want voting….
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/05/axelrod-defends-suit-on-ohio-military-voting-law-calls-romney-stance-hameful/
Phil Cardarella
9 months, 2 weeks agoBuzzy:
THERE IS NO VOTER FRAUD! The GOP Pennsylvania folks had to admit that in their court pleadings. You are being sold Snipe Insurance.
It is interesting that you think that the right to vote is something so important that some folks who are entitled to do so should not be allowed to? Like not letting them vote to teach them to be more responsible? Do you (or the folks at FOX) ever read what you write?
Mark Hastert
9 months, 2 weeks ago“C’mon Star….at least be honest about your desire to allow anyone who breathes the privilige to vote.”
Why don’t you conservative admit, like others caught in more candid moments have, that this a voter suppression scheme? It’s like a poll tax or a literacy test. Just a thin veneer of legitimacy to keep people from voting, lipstick on a pig. Just a bunch of old white guys protecting what’s left of their ever diminishing turf.
Mark Hastert
9 months, 2 weeks ago“that ol’ white guy comebacker. Did you think that up all by yourself?”
As a matter of fact Mr Lightyear I did, been using it for months now, if the shoe fits… you’re late to the party. See you around..