Georgia recently passed a law that requires voters to show picture ID in order to vote in elections. The requirement extends to registered voters who do not have valid driver's licenses, who must pay up to $35 to buy a state-issued ID card, according to this article. Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan plans to protest this law, and I think she's going to see a lot of support.
I don't like the idea of requiring picture ID in order to participate in the fundamental right of voting, and I especially dislike the concept of requiring people to pay money in order to exercise that right. I think the good representative has a point when she notes that this will adversely affect the poor. In an age where minimum wage is less than $6, a $35 fee is equal to over half a day's work for many people, most of whom can't afford to part with that extra money.
In the 1960's, poll taxes were declared unconstitutional in this country. I don't see any discernable difference between having to pay a fee to the state at the polls and having to pay the state before you go to the polls. This is a bad law, and needs to be repealed.
3 comments:
With you all the way on this one Steve.
Are these people who can't afford to have a picture id really showing up at the polls? And isn't there an option for absentee voting which wouldn't require id? I think it's important to have some form of picture id and if this gets the people motivated to get one then great, but I seriously doubt the people negatively effected (affected?) by the monetary issues of this law are even going to notice.
I don't see how that matters, Cassie. They have a right to vote. They shouldn't have to pony up money in order to do that, and it shouldn't matter whether they were going to vote before the rule or not. So long as it affects one person and keeps them from speaking their voice, then it's wrong. I don't think vote fraud is so damaging to the democratic process as to justify such a law.
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