Civil Rights Groups Deem Voter ID Bill Discriminatory

Just two months after the celebrated reauthorization of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Congress is embroiled in a legislative battle over a bill that civil rights groups are calling a “modern day poll tax.”

HR.4844, the “Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006,” requires voters to obtain and present a government-issued photo ID that proves their citizenship in order to vote. The bill, proposed by Representative Henry Hyde (R-IL), passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 228-196. For most voters, the only form of ID that would meet this requirement is a US passport.

Supporters of HR.4844 claim that the bill addresses “voter fraud” in our current system. Many supporters claim that the rise in illegal immigration has resulted in voting fraud that has the potential to affect the outcome of elections.

However, numerous civil rights groups have questioned the validity of this claim and cite specific studies that find otherwise. Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, states that supporters of the bill are “inflating voter fraud into a problem that just doesn’t exist.”

Chellie Pingree, president of Common Cause, said that elections have many problems “but people pretending to be someone else is not one of them.”

Most Americans currently do not have a passport or other photo ID that proves citizenship, as HR.4844 would require. Furthermore, in a recent letter to Congress, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law cites specific statistics that show the bill will have a “disproportionate impact on traditionally disenfranchised voters.” According to a study conducted by the University of Wisconsin, 50 percent of African-American and Latino men do not possess a government-issued ID.

“This bill creates a tremendous burden that ties the right to vote to documents that are not easily accessible,” said Kristen Clarke-Avery, of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The cost of a replacement birth certificate, to prove citizenship, can be as much as $40. A US passport now costs $97.

Although HR.4844 passed in the House of Representatives on September 20, opponents do not expect a Senate vote but are concerned that supporters will try to attach it to a “must pass” spending bill, as was done with the “REAL ID” law in 2005. Senate Democrats vowed to use “all procedural means available” to fight such an effort, according to Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT).

Urge your Senators not to allow this regressive act to pass in any form.