[EL] Rhode Island and voter ID

Wed Jun 8 10:19:56 PDT 2011

For what it's worth, I've had several Rhode Island Democratic state
legislators over the years explain to me that a good chunk of their
colleagues would be moderate Republicans in almost any other state in the
country, but in Rhode Island the Democratic machine is so strong that anyone
wanting to run for office is advised to do so as a Democrat. So, you've got
a number of Democratic state reps and senators that are ideologically
friendly or at least tolerant towards ideas that in many other states are
going to be considered Republican.

Of course, there's also the possibility that voter ID is just good policy
and Democrats in Rhode Island wanted to do something on the voter fraud
issue. Remember that Providence isn't exactly known for its clean politics,
and Democrats may have felt they should do something to strengthen their
voting processes. 

Now, the scandals that I'm aware of in Providence don't have anything to do
with vote fraud, mostly it's the standard under-the-table payoffs and
contracts-for-family-members stuff like what I've been reading about in DC
and Prince George's County the last few weeks. But if Governor Rowland's
habit of accepting free renovations on his house from government contracts,
having nothing to do with campaign finance, can be used to justify
Connecticut adopting tax financed political campaigns, why can't similar
graft in Rhode Island lead to voter ID requirements? It's been my
observation that 'solutions' proposed by politicians actually address the
'problem' their supposed to solve so rarely as to suggest coincidence. 

Sean Parnell

President

Center for Competitive Politics

http://www.campaignfreedom.org

http://www.twitter.com/seanparnellccp

124 S. West Street, #201

Alexandria, VA  22310

(703) 894-6800 phone

(703) 894-6813 direct

(703) 894-6811 fax

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Estelle
Rogers
Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2011 1:06 PM
To: Justin Levitt
Cc: law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Rhode Island and voter ID

That might explain why Democrats were more likely to support it.  I don't
think it explains why Democrats took the lead in proposing it, which they
did in RI.  Can anyone shed some light on that?

Estelle

Estelle H. Rogers, Esq.
Director of Advocacy 
Project Vote
202-546-4173, ext. 310

The information contained in this email is confidential and may contain
proprietary information. It is meant solely for the intended recipient(s).
Access to this email by anyone else is unauthorized. If you are not the
intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action
taken or omitted in reliance on this, is prohibited and may be unlawful.

On Jun 8, 2011, at 12:22 PM, Justin Levitt wrote:

I don't know whether this answers the question about partisan affiliation or
not, but one factor may be that the Rhode Island bill at least has a
safeguard for those who do not have the right photo ID, a feature missing
from many of the other recent bills.  Under the Rhode Island bill passed by
the state Senate, if you don't have ID, you cast a provisional ballot that
will count if the signature on the ballot matches the signature on the
voter's registration form. 

Justin

On 6/8/2011 8:59 AM, Rick Hasen wrote: 

D'oh.  I meant supported almost exclusively by Republicans and opposed
almost exclusively by Democrats.

On 6/8/2011 8:57 AM, Rick Hasen wrote: 

I noted on the blog a few weeks ago that the Rhode Island Senate approved a
voter id bill.  According to this report
<http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2011/05/12/ri_senate
_to_take_up_voter_id_bill/> , it is going on to the House.  I have no idea
if the governor would sign it.

Everywhere else I'm aware of, these bills have been supported almost
exclusively by Democrats and opposed almost exclusively by Republicans.  Yet
the effort in Rhode Island appears bipartisan
<http://www.projo.com/news/content/RI_voter_ID_27_03-27-11_J6N78NR_v10.14192
d3.html> .

Can anyone shed any light on why Rhode Island is different?

Thanks.

-- 
Rick Hasen
Visiting Professor
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
949.824.0495 - fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu
http://law.uci.edu/faculty/page1_r_hasen.html

William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law
Loyola Law School
http://electionlawblog.org <http://electionlawblog.org/> 

-- 
Rick Hasen
Visiting Professor
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
949.824.0495 - fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu
http://law.uci.edu/faculty/page1_r_hasen.html

William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law
Loyola Law School
http://electionlawblog.org <http://electionlawblog.org/> 

_______________________________________________
Law-election mailing list
Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election

-- 
Justin Levitt
Associate Professor of Law
Loyola Law School | Los Angeles
919 Albany St.
Los Angeles, CA  90015
213-736-7417
justin.levitt at lls.edu
ssrn.com/author=698321

_______________________________________________
Law-election mailing list
Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20110608/16e967cc/attachment.html>