Now the debate over voter photo ID goes back where it belongs: the legislative branch.
States can require voters to produce photo identification, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, upholding a Republican-inspired law that Democrats say will keep some poor, older and minority voters from casting ballots.
Twenty-five states require some form of ID, and the court’s 6-3 decision rejecting a challenge to Indiana’s strict voter ID law could encourage others to adopt their own measures. Oklahoma legislators said the decision should help them get a version approved.
The ruling means the ID requirement will be in effect for next week’s presidential primary in Indiana, where a significant number of new voters are expected to turn out for the Democratic contest between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
The results could say something about the effect of the law, either because a large number of voters will lack identification and be forced to cast provisional ballots or because the number turns out to be small.
Supporters of the law say it’s all about preventing fraud.
Indiana has a “valid interest in protecting ‘the integrity and reliability of the electoral process,‘“ said Justice John Paul Stevens in an opinion that was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Stevens said that Indiana’s desire to prevent fraud and to inspire voter confidence in the election system are important even though there have been no reports of the kind of fraud the law was designed to combat. Evidence of voters being inconvenienced by the law’s requirements also is scant. For the overwhelming majority of voters, an Indiana driver’s license serves as the identification.»
Supreme Court says states can demand photo ID for voting
Which is not to say those who benefit politically from voter fraud at the polls won’t keep trying to prevent states from adopting standards that meet with the Court’s approval. They’ll lie and grandstand as usual—but at least there they have to convince hundreds of elected and accountable people all across the country, instead of just five lawyers in black robes.
I wonder what impact this ruling will have on presidential campaign strategy in those states that have photo ID requirements? Heh.
Update: And then there’s California.
