48 Hour Gambit: TN Voter Photo I.D. Law Will Not Accept College Photo I.D. Cards Issued To Students

[doeriver]

Tennesseans must have photo ID to vote — which could minimize fraud or disenfranchise many
http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/tennesseans-must-have-photo-id-vote-which-could-minimize-fraud-or-disenfranchise-m
Sunday, September 18, 2011 at 9:05pm
By Jeff Woods

"...Rhode Island’s Democratic Secretary of State Ralph Mollis decided to push for photo ID after voters suggested it in public hearings on how to improve elections, said his spokesman, Chris Barnett.

“It’s the perception that matters,” Barnett said. “Just the perception that fraud takes place has a chilling effect on elections and on voters’ confidence in their elected officials. Voter ID addresses that issue in particular.”

Besides, Goins asked, how is anyone supposed to know how many people are voting illegally until there is photo ID to check?

“It’s like this: How do you know someone’s speeding if you don’t have a radar gun? We haven’t had a mechanism to detect it.”

“Folks say there’s been no impersonation,” he added. “My argument to them is, show me one person who’s been disenfranchised, and they can’t.”

Rhode Island’s law is more forgiving than Tennessee’s. First, it allows voters without photo ID to cast provisional ballots. There is no requirement that they later obtain the ID. Election officials will compare signatures on the ballot and registration card to decide whether to count the vote. In Tennessee, voters also can cast provisional ballots, but then they have to show government-issued photo ID within 48 hours or their vote is tossed.

Also, Rhode Island’s law doesn’t take effect until the 2014 elections, giving voters more time to prepare. Tennessee’s requirement goes into effect for next year’s elections, and Democrats worry many thousands of voters will be disenfranchised.

No one knows how many eligible voters in Tennessee don’t have ID. But the Tennessee Department of Safety counts at least 126,000 drivers over age 60 who have chosen to carry non-photo licenses and are registered to vote.

Voters can use expired driver’s licenses with pictures and expired military ID as well as handgun carry permits — but not student photo ID from universities because lawmakers said it’s too easy to make phony ones.

The state is offering free photo ID at its driver service centers if residents certify they’re going to vote. The state intends to notify the 126,000 drivers by mail that they are entitled to the free ID. But would-be voters might have to wait hours in line to get one.

The safety department estimates the average wait time across the state is 55 minutes. But that’s after reaching the first kiosk to take a number. Lines to that kiosk sometimes snake outside the building and around the block.

One day this summer, 40 people hoping to snag photo ID stood for two hours in 90-plus degree heat without water, shelter or chairs outside a driver’s license center in a predominantly black neighborhood of Memphis, according to the Tri-State Defender, the African-American newspaper in that city. Once inside the building, the citizens waited two more hours for their ID."

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