The absurdity of punitive voter ID laws

by Whitney Norton

Syndicated columnist Cynthia Tucker offered a well-deserved sarcastic "Congratulations to the Indiana legislature" on Monday in her column Even God couldn’t vote in Indiana without proper ID. 

Writing about the case in Indiana where a group of retired nuns weren’t allowed to cast a ballot, Tucker argues that "If the absurdity of punitive voter ID laws - adopted in several states with GOP-dominated legislatures - was not apparent before now, this case ought to help all but the most partisan see the fallacy."

Tucker continues, questioning the rationale of Supreme Court Justice Stevens:

Two weeks ago, in a ruling that spurns the universal franchise, the Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s ID requirements. Writing for the 6-3 majority, Justice John Paul Stevens asserted that there was no "concrete evidence of the burden imposed on voters who now lack photo identification."

How about the vicious proposition of throwing out the ballots of elderly nuns, law-abiding citizens who have given their lives to the purest form of service? How about the burden of forcing them to go get a state-sponsored photo ID?

Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita was even more contemptuous, telling reporters that "the sisters were aware of the photo ID requirements and chose not to follow them."

The article even addresses Indiana’s justification for its onerous requirements: the illusive "voter fraud":

...If ferreting out fraud were the point of restrictive voter ID laws, state legislatures would tighten the requirements for absentee ballots. There has been precious little of that.

Instead, those who tout the fraud-preventing brilliance of voter ID laws note that those without official IDs could use absentee ballots if they feel so strongly about the franchise. Mr. Rokita offered absentee ballots as Indiana’s "safety net" for those without state-sanctioned ID.

To read Tucker’s article, click here.