[EL] Re How a great-great-granny could settle the voter ID issue

[Derek Muller]

Dear all,

There has been a good amount of discussion regarding the lack of proof
regarding actual in-person voter fraud. (On this, like my dear colleague
Mark Scarberry, I have been fairly convinced by the well-thought
discussions here and elsewhere on the subject.)

But I have, I suppose, the mirror question (inspired by the National
Constitution Center run through Yahoo! that Rick linked to today): is there
any proof of the *lack of access *to voter identification? When I read
statements from the Brennan Center like "could impact" and "may not have,"
I immediately revert to skepticism. And then I wonder about other
metrics--it may well be that "eligible" voters lack access to voter ID, but
it may also be that they're not registered or have no real interest in
voting in the first place; and when looking at "registered voters," we know
that those lists, despite our best efforts, will always have a non-trivial
number of ineligible voters who remain registered (e.g., moved away, died,
etc.), and a lack of voter identification is, if anything, a good thing.

So I wonder, has there been any actual circumstance in which an eligible,
registered voter showed up at the polling place on election day; lacked
voter identification; and had no means to obtain it? (I'm looking at "no
means," even if they were willing to pay handsomely for it.) That is, on
the litigation side, have there been any "as-applied" challenges to the
voter identification requirements? As in, judicially-found facts, not
simply allegations, that an eligible and registered voter actually lacks
access to the required ID? (Perhaps there have been too few elections in
voter identification jurisdictions for us to have many tangible metrics, I
admit.)

It's, of course, possible that there are a number of individuals who are
intimidated or simply stay home because they lack the identification; but,
I suppose, the same could hold true for undocumented instances of voter
fraud. And this isn't to say that voter ID laws might not suppress turnout
(and I've followed the recent discussions about the fairly uncertain
statistical evidence). It's just asking the factual predicate.

I recall vaguely that a van of nuns tried to vote in Indiana recently, but
that they lacked IDs--not because they didn't have them, but because they
didn't bring them to the polls.

The 93-year-old in Pennsylvania story is interesting, I think, because it's
not (I think) directly stating that the plaintiff lacks ID--just that the
plaintiff lacks the ability to obtain a birth certificate, which she would
use to obtain a *free* ID (and the story has made clear that she's paid for
the birth certificate, even if it hasn't arrived). So, I think there's some
slight ambiguity in the facts (at least as presented). And, this is for a *
future* election; I hope that things straight out for her by November, and,
hence, my question is more historically-oriented.

Any resources would be much appreciated. Thanks!

(My apologies if this question has been answered in some of the other
discussions--I'm afraid I haven't handled my inbox very well this summer.)

Best,

Derek

Derek T. Muller

Associate Professor of Law

Pepperdine University School of Law

24255 Pacific Coast Hwy.

Malibu, CA 90263

+1 310-506-7058

SSRN Author Page: http://ssrn.com/author=464341


“How a great-great-granny could settle the voter ID
issue”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=37355>
Posted on July 23, 2012 9:29 pm <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=37355> by Rick
Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Yahoo News reports.<http://news.yahoo.com/great-great-granny-could-settle-voter-id-issue-100208686.html>
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