Dan Tokaji: The Hyde Vote Suppression Bill

[Wilms]

He's anti-VVPAT getting really low marks from many in the ER movement. Still, he's a fierce advocate for Voting Rights. Apparently, it's a complicated world.

The Hyde Vote Suppression Bill

by Dan Tokaji

June 26, 2006

I've been in Washington, DC for the past few days and, on Thursday, attended a hearing of the House Administration Committee on H.R. 4844. Although somewhat lost in the last few days with the news that Voting Rights Act renewal has stalled (more on this to come), this is a very significant bill. Proposed by Rep. Henry Hyde (D-IL), the bill would make drastic changes to both the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) that would drastically alter -- and, in my view, undermine -- the way they presently function.

As the testimony on Thursday made clear, the bill is a product of the intense and increasingly polarized debate over immigration. Briefly, the bill would require applicants using the federal mail registration form to provide a photocopy of documents proving that they're citizens of the United States. In addition, HAVA's limited identification requirement would be amended to require all citizens to provide "current and valid photo identification" in order to vote.

Election officials would be forbidden from accepting "any ballot,"

including even a provisional ballot,

from those who lack photo ID. The bill would take effect in the November 2006 elections.

I know that the words "vote suppression," which I've used in the title to this post are strong ones, and I generally try to avoid inflammatory rhetoric. But I don't know how else to describe a bill that would require voters to produce documents that many of them don't have, in order to register or to vote. As Rep. Hyde has undoubtedly noticed, there's no one document that all citizens have to prove their citizenship. And according to a task force report produced for the Carter-Ford commission in 2001, approximately 6-10% of adults lack a state-issued driver's license. The Hyde Bill is actually worse than the Georgia photo ID bill enjoined by a court last year, in that it doesn't even make a token effort to provide voters with identification they lack.

Is Rep. Hyde's intent to suppress votes? That I don't know. During his testimony, he displayed an astounding ignorance of the consequences that his bill would have on the many people who don't have the documents his bill would require. He also could provide no estimate of how many noncitizens actually attempt to vote. In fact, none of those who testified in support of this bill provided any such estimate. The closest anyone came was the Harris County registrar, testifying in support of the bill, who said that of 1.9 million voters, a total of 35 foreign nationals attempted to register. Note that these are only alleged non-citizens who attempted to register, not those who tried to votes -- and some may have been people applying for citizenship with no intention of actually voting until they gained their citizenship. But even if we assume that all of them tried to vote, those 35 people amount to 0.0018% -- or one ineligible voter for every 54,285 eligible ones.

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/blogs/tokaji/2006/06/hyde-vote-suppression-bill.html

[AndyTiedye]

1. One Glaring Error.

Rep. Henry Hyde (D-IL)

I don't think so.

[OnTheOtherHand]

5. LOL!

Tokaji just corrected that typo.

[OneBlueSky]

2. so . . . which groups are least likely to have photo IDs? . . .

inner city minorities, perhaps, with no use for cars? . . .

young people who haven't begun driving yet? . . .

senior citizens who no longer drive? . . .

the disabled, who can't drive? . . .

while there are other photo IDs besides drivers licenses, these are what most people tend to have . . . seems like this legislation would disenfranchise whole groups of people . . .

[mod mom]

3. that was the idea in Ohio-to legitimize it under the disguise of

protectioning Americans.

[IndyOp]

4. Take Effect IN November 2006? THAT SOON!?!?! Holy freak! (n/t)

:grr: :grr: :grr:

[AndyTiedye]

8. Blackwell Is Planning a Republican Sweep in Ohio This Fall

Blatant, but legal vote suppression is obviously a very powerful tool for them
not only for keeping Democrats from voting, but for helping to explain the
chasm between the polls and the results they will be reporting.

[mopinko]

6. what is the range of fees for drivers licenses around

the country? anyone know? in illinois i think it is about $10. if they pass this (and it withstands challenge), i have $50 here that says every thug sos raises fees by at least 100% within a year.

[GregD]

7. low marks from many in the ER movement

Tokaki debated Kim Alexander of www.calvoter.org in July 2003.

Archived audio is here:
http://www.kqed.org/search/search.jsp?q=tokaji&x=13&y=10