Opinion

King: It's time to move beyond debate over voter ID

If there has ever been an issue of less practical or political import that has produced more litigation, legislation, public debate and passion than voter ID, I cannot imagine what it would be.

I agree with the majority of Americans that producing some kind of ID to prove you are who you say you are when you vote is not an unreasonable safeguard. However, I am equally convinced that the amount of voter fraud generally is minuscule and the number of people actually showing up to vote using a false identity is even rarer.

It is evident that the latter proposition is true because in none of the litigation over voter ID have any of the states defending the laws even attempted to make any showing of actual voter fraud. It was somewhat surprising to me that the courts have consistently said that the states do not have to show actual incidents of fraud to justify requiring identification. The courts have ruled the states have a right to impose reasonable safeguards solely to assure the public that elections are fair.

But let's not pretend that either side of this issue cares about the merits of the issue. This is pure political calculation.

It is a fight that Republicans picked. Polls showed that after the Florida election debacle in 2000, the public was concerned about election integrity. Apparently some GOP operatives came up with the idea that Republicans could win points with the public by playing to that anxiety and perhaps suppress Democratic turnout in the process.

Democrats for their part have tried to turn the tables on the Republicans by attempting to tie the current voter ID laws to the insidious disenfranchisement of black voters in the South in the last century as part of a strategy to fire up their base.

But just as there is little evidence of any actual voter fraud, there is also very little evidence that voter ID laws actually keep many people from voting. The handful of studies that have looked at elections in states that passed voter ID laws found little evidence that they affected the turnout of any group.

There is one aspect of the Texas voter ID law that I find troubling. That is its failure to include an exemption for senior citizens. Notwithstanding that the state of Texas could not match 800,000 voters with a driver's license, I find it very difficult to believe that there are going to be many people who show up to vote who will not have a driver's license, with one exception. That exception is older Texans who have stopped driving. The Legislature's failure to provide an exception for this group is inexcusable.

I also think that both parties have miscalculated the impact of their respective positions. First, the Democrats have alienated moderates who see voter ID as a reasonable safeguard, especially when they compare them to poll taxes, literacy tests and the like. But Republicans are probably the bigger loser. It is possible the group that will be most affected by the requirements are older voters who are somewhat more likely to vote Republican. Older voters who have given up their driver's licenses may decide it is just too much trouble to get an ID card.

But more importantly, the latest round of voter ID is just another nail in the coffin of Republicans wooing Latino voters. I continue to be amazed that the GOP does everything it can to alienate the fastest growing demographic group in the country and one, by the way, that is culturally inclined to agree with Republicans on a variety of issues.

Given that there is little evidence that the voter ID laws have actually prevented much of anyone from voting, Republican victories in securing voter ID laws may prove Pyrrhic in the end.

My suggestion to both sides is to move on. If you really have the time, perhaps you should consider trying to find a way to solve the 90 percent of burglaries that go unsolved or perhaps fixing our broken school finance system or our state pensions that are billions of dollars underwater or doing something to protect the 1 million people and billions of dollars in improvements that are vulnerable to the next Category 5 hurricane that hits Houston or … well, you get the picture.

Of course, that is not going to happen. Those are complex problems that might require someone to make a hard decision. Much better to scheme how to keep (or get) your party in power by gaming elections.

Email King at weking@weking.net and follow him on twitter.com/weking.