The mission of the Oregon Voter Rights Coalition is to restore public ownership and oversight of elections, and to ensure the fundamental right of every American citizen to vote and to have each vote counted as intended in a secure, transparent, impartial, and independently verified election process.
Argument against HR 4844 Voter ID Bill: You Don't Need a Permission Slip to Vote
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 09/24/2006 - 11:55pm
By Kathy Jackson
What this bill really does is to change the frame from having a right to vote to having a license to vote. The difference is crucial. Instead of treating the vote as something intrinsic to civic participation, HR 4844 proposes that the right to vote is something that is government regulated and that you need a "permission slip", i.e. "government-issued photo ID" in order to vote.
Supporters of HR 4844 say inane things like: "I have to show my ID at the airport or to buy liquor or cigarettes" ... "Everyone should have ID anyway" ... "I have a drivers license, doesn't everyone?" .."I had to show my ID to get a hunting license."
The point is that all the above situations involve voluntary actions that are subject to government regulation.
I would argue that the right to vote is different because it is not and should not be government regulated since it is at the core of democracy. Why should the government be regulating the vote when it is the voters who are ultimately in charge? It is by the vote that the will of the people is expressed. It is by the vote that there is a legitimate transfer of power from the people to the government.
Recent court cases in Georgia and Missouri were decided on the premise that requiring certain forms of ID in order to vote placed an undue burden on the right to vote. Therefore the voter ID laws were found to be contrary to the provisions of the state constitutions in Georgia and Missouri. I don't know what the Oregon Constitution says about the right to vote -- if there are similar provisions in our constitution as in these other states, a voter ID bill would be unconstitutional in Oregon. However, there is no such explicit provision in the U.S. Constitution (at least Bush v. Gore said so). So the outcome of litigation concerning the constitutionality of HR 4844 is much more problematic in light of the ruling in Bush v. Gore.
There is no room for compromise on HR 4844. This pernicious bill must be stopped in the Senate. Even if we win some "concession" on vote by mail this time, this bill is bad public policy and should be opposed for the sake of our fellow citizens in other states.
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