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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Associated Press reported erroneously the political affiliation of Rep. Rodney Moore of Mecklenburg County. He is a Democrat.
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH, N.C.
Republican lawmakers failed Tuesday to override a veto by Gov. Beverly Perdue that would have required voters to show photo identification before casting an in-person ballot.
The North Carolina House voted on party lines 67-52 in favor of the override, five votes short of what's needed to move it to the Senate. Republicans performed a parliamentary maneuver, however, that keeps the voter ID issue alive.
Republicans argued the photo ID mandate would discourage voter fraud and build the public's confidence in voting. Democrats said the requirement is unnecessary because reports of fraud are few and that it would only lead to voter suppression, particularly among older people, minorities and women.
The override question spurred passionate debate for more than an hour about voting in an era in which citizens show identification to enter government buildings or get on an airplane but only a half-century since blacks in the Jim Crow-era South were discouraged from voting because of the color of their skin.
"This bill is an insult to me. It's an insult to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King," said first-term Rep. Rodney Moore, D-Mecklenburg. "Right now, I feel like my rights have been raped. Yes I do because there is no substantive problem in North Carolina with voter fraud and this is purely, purely an attempt at voter suppression."
Perdue vetoed the measure last month.
"I want to thank the legislators who stood firm in the belief that every North Carolinian has the constitutional right to vote and that the state should not be creating obstacles to stop them," Perdue said in a statement after the vote.
GOP legislative leaders contend polls show strong support for voter ID and that Perdue vetoed the measure to please her Democratic base. Several Republican House members have said voter identification is one of the most important issues to their constituents.
"How can you possibly vote against a requirement where in one instance you have to show a photo ID (in Winston-Salem) to panhandle but not show a photo ID to do the most important and sacred thing that we do as citizens?" said House Speaker Pro Tempore Dale Folwell, R-Forsyth.
Democrats argue the bill was purely partisan. Others have suggested ID requirements would make it harder for President Obama to win North Carolina's electoral votes next year after winning them for Democrats in 2008 for the first time in 32 years.
Voter fraud is a felony in North Carolina. The State Board of Elections referred 43 cases of potential fraud to district attorneys in 2008 and 21 in 2010. Meanwhile, about 147,100 active black voters do not have photo ID, according to the election reform group Democracy North Carolina. The bill didn't even consider potential fraud problems with obtaining absentee ballots, said House Minority Leader Joe Hackney, D-Orange.
"Everyone is interested in the integrity of the elections and it does appear that common sense says that people should show an ID," said Bob Hall, Democracy North Carolina's executive director. "But when you look at the data, there are more people that are hurt that requirement than would be helped."
But it's still too easy to vote using someone else's identity, ID supporters argue. All a person needs to do is get the name and address of a registered voter and go to a precinct where they aren't well known, said Rep. Jeff Collins, R-Nash.
"You can question all my motives all you want to," Collins said on the House floor. "My motive is to make sure everyone is voting legally."
House Majority Leader Paul Stam, R-Wake, who voted with the minority to perform the procedural changes to keep the bill alive through the remainder of the 2011-12 session, said the bill wouldn't be reconsidered before the Legislature leaves town this week.
"I am hopeful that North Carolinians will continue to express their support for this critical issue and that their representatives will respond appropriately," House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, said in a prepared release.
Hackney complained about the maneuver, arguing the people already have spoken on the issue through their representatives.
"Apparently, if they can't win straight out, they're holding out for some kind of trickery," Hall said.
Fourteen states now have laws that require or request photo identification of voters, while 16 require ID without a photo, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
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Lets make this simple
voting is right, not a privilege! This ID law is simply a GOP attempt to dissuade people (mostly poor) from voting. What next, a poll tax? The conservatives are on the ropes and what they thought would be a big win in 2012 is starting to look like a rout of the republicans. Pretty soon the repubs will not have enough members to form a golf outing! lol!
must you show you failed civics
To be a right, it must be something that you are able to do at birth. Speech, defend yourself, keep what you have private, the ability to redress against someone for their action upon you, and who you associate with are some examples of rights.
Voting is neither a right or privilege but a compact that people agree to select the common rules we live by with each other.
Australia compels their citizens to vote so how can voting be a right there if you are coerced?
Lincoln demonstrated that voting is not a right since the south voted to excise itself from the union and he brought back the lost sheep to the fold.
You should have to show who you are to vote to prevent me from being disenfranchised by someone saying they are you.
Explain to me how this is
Explain to me how this is going to keep anyone from voting legally. Most everyone has a picture ID and one was going to be provided free of charge if you didn't have one. This isn't a rich/poor or black/white issue; it is voter fraud issue. Some want fraud some don't.
What wrong with showing ID?
If you want to vote show a picture ID, if you don't show one, stay home. I wonder how many illegals vote with a bogus name and don't have to show an ID and how many criminals that have no right to vote do so using a family members name. If you have something to hide I guess it's okay not to have to show an ID card with your picture. Just like the old saying, a locked door keeps and honest man honest, but a locked one just gives a dishonest man something to break into. I'd rather show the ID and be honest. After all, the dishonesty in this country is ruining it.
Republicans love voter suppression
Republican voter suppression continues. In Wisconsin...
Wisconsin’s population is substantially less likely to have a state-issued identification. A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee study showed the following about those without state-issued driver’s license and who would need to obtain photo identification under the Wisconsin voter ID bill:
• Over 178,000 elderly Wisconsinites.
• 17 percent of white men and women.
• 55 percent of African-American men and 49 percent of African-American women.
• 46 percent of Hispanic men and 59 percent of Hispanic women.
• 78 percent of African-American men age 18-24 and 66 percent of African-American women age 18-24.
I doubt this was a study
I doubt this was a study done officially and is accurate. I don't believe it.
CHRIS YOU NEED TO THINK FOR YOURSELF...
Who funded that 'study'? You really think that 80% of african american males 18-24 don't have an ID?
You think that;
80% don't have a car, or drive illegally every time they get behind the wheel
80% don't have a job
80% don't attend college
80% don't have a bank account
80% don't pay taxes
80% have never cashed a check, or picked up prescription drugs
80% have never wrote a check at a retail store
80% have never purchased an alcoholic beverage
80% have never purchased tobacco products
80% have never purchased a lottery ticket
80% have never gone to a 21&up club
Please help yourself, challenge everything, think objectively about the individual data points or arguments, don't just read and copy paste to the message boards.
You misread Chris' post, Randall
Eighty of the people who would have to obtain a driver's license, say, in order to cast a ballot are black men. The statistic is *not* that 80 percent of all black men in Wisconsin lack driver's licenses.
The incontrovertible truth is that requiring government-issued voted IDs over and above voter registration cards disproportionally affects minority and poor citizens. Ergo, Republicans are enacting what amounts to a poll tax (obtaining a government-issued photo ID costs money; registering to vote is free) to discourage people least likely to vote for Republicans away from going to the polls.
One stop shop
Why don't they just give them the ID cards when they register to vote? Or do you not need ID to register either? Makes it easier for dead people to vote.
ID cards were going to be
ID cards were going to be given to those who didn't have one. They were even going to homes of the elderly to issue the cards to be sure everyone had one. This is just a way to keep fraud in NC. Some can't win without it.