Dec 19 2005
ID requirements
In a post five months ago, I noted that the State Board of Elections had not implemented uniform and nondiscriminatory identification requirements for first time voters who register through the mail. Unfortunately, they still haven’t done this and the identification requirements remain a major hole in our compliance with the Help America Vote Act.
I don’t have strong opinions about this. I generally am opposed to very strict requirements that are being proposed and implemented in Georgia and Arizona. At the same time, I can see a lot of merit in having a higher standard for first time voters who did not present identification at the time of registration. For the purposes of the law, these identification requirements refer to those voters who use an NVRA form to register. The form could either be mailed in, or carried in to the Election Authorities office. In both instances, the form is usually submitted without identification. However, for simplicity, I will refer to these voters as First Time Voters Who Register By Mail.
Here are the questions that have been debated in the past.
Should First Time Voters Who Register By Mail be forced to show ID on election day?
Should the identification presented be required to have the registration address on it?
Should the identification presented be required to have a picture?
What other standards should be established for the identification?
Because we have a high percentage of applications like this, the views of people in this community I think are particularly significant. Please post your thoughts.
Mr. Shelden:
I am curious as to when the on-line voter registration database will be updated. As of today, 2/6/06, the database has not been updated since 3/8/05 according to https://www.champaigncountyclerk.com/elections/registration_status.html
Thank you!
It seems to me that the increased ID requirements are only going to make it harder for students to vote. Students living in dorms probably don’t have the means to drive out to the DMV to change their official address on their license. And they don’t get any utility bills in their dorm either.
Aside from Tim Johnson, this isn’t going to make anyone happy. You should allow students to vote without the ridiculous ID requirements.
Everyone should have an ID that can at least verify they are the right person voting. UofI students must have their UofI ID card (which has their picture and name), or a drivers license can be used without using the address for reference (if it is different from the person’s registered address). ID checks would be a resaonable measure to prevent voter fraud.