Photo I.D. Needed To Vote?

In this day of mass fraud and identification theft
should you need a photo I.D. to vote? The answer
I think is yes. Like so many other things in our high
tech society your right to cast your vote should not be
disrupted because of identity theft. Those who appose
this new law cite that many poor people will not be
able to afford the fees of a photo I.D. This I find to be
bull because most states have plans in place that allow
those that can't afford photo I.D.'s to either get them
for free or at a reduced rate. The Supreme Court is
taking up the matter and will make a decision soon.
What are your thoughts on this controversial subject?

There's the poor, 32-year-old mother of seven who says it would cost her at least $50 to vote in person. There's also the 92-year-old woman who's voted for decades in the same polling place, but now can't vote there because she let her driver's license expire when her eyesight began to fail.

These folks live in Indiana, home of the country's most restrictive photo-identification voter law. The U.S. Supreme Court is now scrutinizing whether that statute violates the first and 14th amendments, in the most contentious legal battle over voting since the high court issued a bitterly divided decision eight years ago that stopped Florida's recount and handed the presidency to George W. Bush.

If the law is upheld, voting rights advocates fear it will encourage conservative lawmakers across the country to enact equally restrictive measures. The high court's decision is expected in the summer -- leaving time to impact November's general election.

Opponents, most of them Democrats, say requiring photo ID at the polls disproportionately affects the poor, the elderly and minorities -- the most likely to lack photo identification.

But supporters, most of them Republicans, say such requirements are necessary to prevent voter fraud.

In states that narrowly lost fights that would force voters to produce this kind of identification, efforts are already underway to resurrect those more restrictive laws -- in anticipation of a favorable ruling from the high court.

In Kansas, for example, GOP legislators announced Jan. 11 that passing such a law was a top priority for its 2008 session. The announcement came two days after oral arguments in the Indiana case.

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