LIBERADIO(!)

When we last left SB0150, Senator Bill Ketron’s (R-Murfreesboro) voter Photo ID bill, it had passed out the the Senate State and Local Government Committee, gone in and out of the Finance Committee (to address and subsequently remove a fiscal note), and landed back in the State and Local.

Although Senator Joe Haynes, Senator Thelma Harper, and Senator Lowe Finney fought the good fight today – pointing out the circular logic, inevitable voter frustration, and potential for disenfranchisement inherent in the bill – it passed out of committee in a straight party-line vote (6-3).

The fiscal note, which was removed, was to allow for free ID’s for those who could not afford them. Removal of the note was based on a workaround that will allow these citizens to sign a sworn affidavit of indigency (or an affidavit of religious exemption) which would excuse them from the photo ID requirement.

But if it’s enough for some to simply sign a sworn statement for their votes to count without having to show a photo ID, then why isn’t is OK for the rest of us? Aren’t we setting up an unequal system? “All you can do is trust what they say,” Senator Ketron says. Right now, everyone who registers to vote must sign a sworn statement that says we are who we say we are. So, if it’s enough for the “indigent” and the “religiously exempt,” then why isn’t it enough for the rest of us?

And what would prevent someone from avoiding the photo ID requirement by signing an affidavit of indigency or religious exemption in someone else’s name and then voting? Right now, it’s the same thing that prevents the rest of us from doing it, a sworn statement and the potential of prosecution fro voter fraud.

There is also a group if people who, as Senator Haynes pointed out, are not indigent, require no religious exemption, but do not have a photo ID. According to Mark Goins, Election Coordinator for the state, these registered voters would be allowed to vote absentee because if you vote absentee you don’t need a photo ID.

In addition to being yet another provision that renders the system unequal, it’s also not true since all voters who want to vote absentee need to vote in person the first time with – you guessed it – a photo ID.

No photo ID –> Vote Absentee! –> But you must vote in person the first time with a photo ID! –> No Photo ID!

Senator Ketron claims he introduced the bill to “protect and purify” the ballot. And it will do just that – but not in the American “this is a democracy and we should be removing barriers to voting instead of creating them” kind of way.

As Senator Haynes said, we already have laws in place to punish those who commit voter fraud. Why do we need to erect additional barriers. Especially, I would add, when the incidences of voter fraud cases is virtually non-existent?

And if this law disenfranchises one person, then that is one person too many.

Another exchange between Senator Harper and Mark Goins addressed the system for notification of voters of the new system – especially the elderly. Mr. Goins said they would do everything they could to get the word out. For free – since doing it any other way would add another fiscal note. And I’m sure they will – except when they don’t.