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Photo IDs Are Not Barriers To Voting

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 6, 2008

With Indiana holding its presidential primary today, it will be interesting to see how many people are denied the right to vote because they lack proper identification.

Last Monday, by a 6-3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Indiana law that requires voters to show a photo ID.

Critics say the requirement poses a barrier to voter participation, but as Justice John Paul Stevens, one of the court's most liberal members, noted in his majority decision, the challengers to Indiana's law failed to prove it keeps voters from the polls.

Stevens is right. Those who oppose the law have failed to show the ID requirement is discriminatory.

Besides, people need photo identification to board an airplane, write a check, purchase age-restricted products and gain access to certain buildings. There's nothing wrong with requiring photo IDs of citizens who show up to vote.

Yes, some states have a history of developing tactics to skirt the 15th Amendment, which prohibits states from denying citizens the right to vote based on race. But requiring proper identification is hardly the modern-day equivalent of 19th-century poll taxes, which discouraged blacks from voting in the South, as some activists claim.

Most American citizens can acquire a photo ID with proper documents, such as a birth certificate. Requiring proper identification is not an undue burden.

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