Opposition mounts to photo ID voting requirement

The Associated Press - ATLANTA  18 March 2005

A Republican attempt to require picture IDs before people vote would put up barriers to a basic right, Georgia's top elections official said Friday.

Secretary of State Cathy Cox, a Democrat, weighed in on a pending bill that would cut the forms of identification voters can use to vote. If approved, the bill would give Georgia the nation's toughest requirements for voter IDs, the secretary of state's office said.

Amid growing opposition _ not just from Cox but also the state AARP and civil rights groups _ a Senate committee postponed considering the bill Friday. Sen. John Wiles, R-Marietta, who postponed the vote, didn't say when it would be brought back up.

The picture ID requirement has become a volatile debate at the Capitol. Republican sponsors say photo IDs would prevent voting fraud. Some Democrats say the ID change is a thinly veiled attempt to depress voter turnout among the people least likely to have driver's licenses: the poor, minorities and the elderly.

The argument grew so heated last week that black Democrats in both chambers walked out over the proposal to reduce the valid forms of identification from 17 to five.

Cox, who oversees elections, pointed out several concerns about the plan in a six-page memo to senators Friday.

"We've not had any incidents ... where we've had a complaint of someone presenting themselves at the poll and pretending to be someone else," she told reporters after the bill was tabled.

Cox also took issue with other parts of the bill, including a 45-day, no-excuses absentee voting period. Those ballots would require no ID, so voting fraud could become more likely if the bill became law, she said.

"We would start a vote-by-mail system," she said.

Wiles said the bill will be delayed while sponsors try to work out the picture ID controversy.

"We want to make sure everyone has the right to vote," he said.

Opponents said they'd fight any requirement for photo IDs. William Brown, spokesman for the state AARP, said 36 percent of Georgians over age 75 have no driver's license.

The bill "singles out people who are older and who are inconveniences by another obstacle to vote," he said. "Some of these people have been voting for years."

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