[EL] boarding plane without showing ID

[Josiah Neeley]

I'm trying to imagine what would happen if someone proposed a similar sort of "accommodation" for people who show up to vote without a photo ID. 
________________________________________
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on behalf of Justin Levitt [levittj at lls.edu]
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2011 6:55 AM
To: Jerald Lentini
Cc: Doug Hess; Election Law
Subject: Re: [EL] boarding plane without showing ID

When I walked into the airport Wednesday night, I did not have photo ID (either govt-issued or not) in my wallet. At the risk of too much sharing, here's what I did have: two credit cards, firing range card, health insurance card, blood donor card, coffee shop frequent visitor card, and a few business cards. I was also carrying a checkbook. But no photos. 

The TSA officer looked at my boarding pass, and then had me step aside for some additional questions -- another officer reviewed the documentation, and asked a bit more. Then I was asked to step through the (regular) security line, where my bags were screened, and an officer got to see a wholly unappealing backscatter picture.  The entire thing took about ten minutes longer than it otherwise would have. And worked exactly as it was supposed to. This wasn't a parlor trick ... it was policy.