Have we mentioned that Scott County Republican leadership saw to the removal of support for photo voter ID from the platform?
Even Bill Clinton thinks voter photo ID is a no-brainer.
Now that Bill Clinton and civil rights leader Andrew Young have endorsed the concept of photo ID to prevent voter fraud, maybe Scott County Republican leadership will shake off the namby-pambyness that caused them to run from support of such a needed reform.
From the Washington Post yesterday:
Clinton and Young, a former mayor of Atlanta, expressed concern that the voter ID laws could discourage poor and minority voters from showing up at the polls, which would circumvent the intent of the Voting Rights Act.
“I’m not against photo identification, but only as long as the cards are free and easily accessible. Providing eligible voters the ability to obtain a photo on a Social Security card eliminates any genuine concern,” Young said. He called on Obama to issue an executive order making such photos available.
Clinton did not go so far as to urge executive action. However, he said, putting photos on Social Security cards would represent “a way forward that eliminates error,”
Of course voter photo ID laws typically have provisions for issuing them free of charge to those unable to pay. That aspect has long been a non-issue, as have accusations of voter suppression as a mater of law. Given wide spread support even among Democrats, the battle in individual states has been to overcome Democrat Party operatives who use lax laws in order to facilitate fraud. Photos on Social Security cards may be part of a poison pill gambit by Democrats but even suggesting it takes away their phony cost and suppression arguments. It should remain a state matter period.
Achieving voter photo ID is a matter of political will. Scott County Republican leadership chose to absent itself from expressing will on key current specific issues. R Mall
