Identity Politics

While controversy rages across the country over whether computerized voting machines may result in lost or manipulated votes, there is another change in the election system this year that could lead to lost voting rights: Some people who show up at the polls will now have to show identification in order to cast a ballot. The federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) requires first-time voters in a "jurisdiction" who register by mail and who do not include verification with their registration form to present identification. The identification can be a photo ID, utility bill, bank statement or government document that shows the name and address of the voter. Despite the apparent limited reach of the new requirement, there is already evidence that it could lead to disenfranchisement of minority voters in particular.

Officials in South Dakota are investigating complaints from voters--primarily from counties in which Indian reservations are located--that they were not allowed to vote in the June primary when they could not produce photo identification, as is required for all voters under a recently passed South Dakota law. Although poll workers were also required by law to offer such voters affidavit ballots, they did not do so and simply turned them away.

Similar complaints came out of the Ohio primary in March. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that the voter-empowerment coordinator for the NAACP received at least fifty phone calls from black voters who were required to present identification in Cuyahoga County--a suspiciously high number considering that, according to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, a total of only 185 voters in the whole jurisdiction were required under HAVA to present identification. A leader of the Greater Cleveland Voter Registration Coalition also received such calls from black voters.

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