[EL] Disenfranchised?

Fri Apr 14 07:17:39 PDT 2017

Look, Berman claims his mother would be disenfranchised specifically and solely because she would not have access to a US birth certificate and had never had a driver's license. That statement is incorrect.

One of the problems with discussing voter ID intelligently--and I think in this regard both sides have seriously damaged their case over the years--is the seeming inability to describe the burdens and benefits without exaggeration. Of course, what Joe says is true--IF she didn't have her naturalization papers (though I think Joe makes it sound more burdensome than in fact it is--for example, I'm pretty sure Ari Berman would be happy to help his grandmother get a social security card online, if she needed a new one at all). In my experience, including but not limited to my early legal career as an immigration attorney and my pre-law school time as a U.S. consular officer, most naturalized citizens guard and treasure their naturalization papers. Surely, though, there are some who do not have them. Where Mr. Berman's grandmother fits we don't know. So what is the overall burden? We don't know, and Mr. Berman's example sheds little light on the subject. Why did he use his grandmother as an example? Because, of course, it's a rhetorical device aimed at better selling the case.

There are real burdens to voter ID laws but we don't need to overstate them. Any and every requirement for voting--the need to actually vote rather than just shout out your preference to the mailman; closing polling places at 8:00 p.m rather than midnight; having 26 voting locations in a city rather than 27; requiring voters to line up and sign in rather than simply walk up and drop a ballot in the box--places some burden on the voter. The question is not whether any and every burden is unconstitutional, but how much may a voter be legitimately burdened for the state to operate a fair and orderly election. As in most areas of law and governance, I believe that the state consistently overstates the need for regulation of elections. Opponents of voter ID laws have a strong case that should be made on the merits.

Bradley A. Smith

Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault

   Professor of Law

Capital University Law School

303 E. Broad St.

Columbus, OH 43215

614.236.6317

http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx

________________________________
From: Joseph E. Sandler [sandler at sandlerreiff.com]
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2017 9:27 AM
To: Gabriel Gopen; Smith, Brad
Cc: Election Law Listserv
Subject: RE: [EL] Disenfranchised?

Totally agree with Mr. Gopen and it’s not remotely as simple as Brad would have it.  What is really involved is that (if she were alive now and trying to vote in Iowa under this new law)  she would have to:

  1.  Apply to USCIS for a citizenship certificate –an application which is 15 pages long with 13 pages of instructions and can take months to get
  2.  But if she got naturalized in her maiden name that wouldn’t be good enough; would need to a get a separate certified marriage certificate or a court order
  3.  With that in hand, she would have to show up IN PERSON at an IowaDOT office with a Social Security card (NOT a Medicare card); plus proof of residence. Likely she would have to get a replacement Social Security card first.  Can be done online but if you’re 89 years old and not online.. and need to call or visit a Social Security office—good luck with that.
All that for someone who came to this country to flee the Holocaust, to find freedom and safety, who is unquestionably a US citizen, just to be able to vote in this country?  Seriously?  The Iowa measure is shameful.

Joseph E. Sandler
Sandler, Reiff, Lamb, Rosenstein & Birkenstock PC
1025 Vermont Ave., N.W.  Suite 300
Washington, D.C. 20005
Telephone: 202 479 -1111
Fax: 202-479-1115
Cell:  202 607 0700

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Gabriel Gopen
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2017 9:07 AM
To: Smith, Brad <BSmith at law.capital.edu>
Cc: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: Re: [EL] Disenfranchised?

Why do you invariably operate under the assumption that every rightful citizen has ready access to documents?  Mr. Bergman's late grandmother was 89-years-old when she left Brooklyn.  Her naturalization papers would have been no less than four decades old. Perhaps the senior citizens you know all lead near, orderly lives with carefully labeled file cabinets.  But I do pro bono cases for AARP and the reality that I see is much more complicated.  If she possessed the papers at all (and not a male guardian), is that a reasonable record keeping burden?
 How does that balance against the mere "perception" of a voter fraud problem in Iowa?

Oh, and Chag same'ach and happy Good Friday.

On Apr 14, 2017, at 7:54 AM, Smith, Brad <BSmith at law.capital.edu<mailto:BSmith at law.capital.edu>> wrote:
Would Ari Berman's mother really have been "disenfranchised" by the voter ID law advancing in Iowa? Since his mother voted, she presumably was a U.S. citizen. Since, as Berman explains, she was a U.S. citizen by naturalization, she would have naturalization papers. A resident of Iowa may obtain an Iowa non-operator ID by presenting naturalization papers.

Bradley A. Smith

Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault

   Professor of Law

Capital University Law School

303 E. Broad St.

Columbus, OH 43215

614.236.6317

http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx&c=E,1,3UYbAF6cH10s0VnB3osem7pAstsVVH3nSoil99wbbxpuqz6vDbBCfpD6gsLFrp0pKDjrBr6I0-eOq9rZR59N-aQ2qQuEsKggsobotW24&typo=1>

________________________________
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu<mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu<mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu>] on behalf of Rick Hasen [rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>]
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2017 12:05 AM
To: Election Law Listserv
Subject: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/14/17

“Iowa’s New Voter-ID Law Would Have Disenfranchised My Grandmother”<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://electionlawblog.org/%3fp%3d92105&c=E,1,C9OAPqCKAeuoTXE_mGBWWArfcsI_76elRWG2P7qcZhoeY0QNPM2Ve6KZzFGXM0e5bkV1HktGfG9eIDYpjPR21xOOoY6LR-C4drh_16jkgw,,&typo=1>
Posted on April 13, 2017 8:42 pm<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://electionlawblog.org/%3fp%3d92105&c=E,1,VnCEQ3mCsZCCznHbcEfii25IY-6p2jt_JNCPbS9-kx39oQvRyZ05hD8i2WhWppYg-r_-OpcBR13rLq3m627RjgZg22D4y-g2wuQYcuL9JPNRRKAhwCqPfr8,&typo=1> by Rick Hasen<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://electionlawblog.org/%3fauthor%3d3&c=E,1,AD3FMWkZ_opU-kOi7HchsPP4PPAl2j_6lRTHpYTatZ1B2BaTgx6LhkkLv3nunE7UeKaxdgBVIPIB5guKTrdo-yFEAfZ1ZmXnNTiyUZjK8Ih_NHG-Yliv&typo=1>
Ari Berman<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https://www.thenation.com/article/iowas-new-voter-id-law-would-have-disenfranchised-my-grandmother/&c=E,1,H8Qusc_Z_TMks7CEzwpIcMVZrL0ZvjUjWjBGc5QnqxvnNN9qpqzWj_ofqpTIjYA0duU9eapZ1U4eIb_viXWUeBN2f8Qsd9RKYfiAUq50_A,,&typo=1> for The Nation:
My grandmother Sylvia moved from Brooklyn to Iowa when she was 89 years old. It was a culture shock, to say the least. When my mom took her to vote, she complained of the candidates, “There isn’t anybody who’s Jewish!”
I thought of my grandmother, who passed away in 2005 at 99, when the Iowa Legislature passed a strict voter-ID law<https://twitter.com/desmoinesdem/status/852563709536948224> today. She didn’t have a driver’s license because she never drove (she’d frequently walk two miles from her apartment to the grocery store). Her passport expired long ago. She never had a US birth certificate because she was born in Poland and fled the Holocaust. She used her Medicare card as identification. She didn’t possess any of the forms of government-issued photo identification that Iowa will soon require to vote.
The ACLU of Iowa reports that 11 percent<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https://www.aclu-ia.org/en/news/paul-pates-voter-id-bill-would-disenfranchise-thousands&c=E,1,F1-C0_f3nZI6mikvKtekrDHg05zRlj4hZMHBOwK3fDthAb98cstWgsXinQfw5Ci7Bf47d1SfKiO_wG4sfjphu4UNWWhBuWrcDR_AVJ3v0c6ryRalqsg,&typo=1> of eligible Iowa voters—260,000 people—don’t have a driver’s license or non-operator ID, according to the US Census and the Iowa Department of Transportation, and could be disenfranchised by the bill. My grandmother, if she were still alive today, would have been one of them.
[hare]<https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D92105&title=%E2%80%9CIowa%E2%80%99s%20New%20Voter-ID%20Law%20Would%20Have%20Disenfranchised%20My%20Grandmother%E2%80%9D>
Posted in election administration<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://electionlawblog.org/%3fcat%3d18&c=E,1,6qt50-zEJUrKUqay1YsX0SdjxKrg_UirZuJ5MS3SW3_nsZDIZ0V5Ue_BvMl1Jnt8w0s9E-xr-Rf3xwoZ72EjuNgxo9Pzj-3sjPUJNgPAH-7yzXEUgd5P&typo=1>, The Voting Wars<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://electionlawblog.org/%3fcat%3d60&c=E,1,VExGirTTZjDLhTjtE992whiGfmPuaJom-T0JQbHuevYyCTdH0XUhpSCpZLotC73A4SDGIYGCCjAbh1nuHhJI8wwO5-w2pqDM1IBHrdriIOlvVM60eEE124y2ZA,,&typo=1>

p://electionlawblog.org<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://electionlawblog.org/&c=E,1,7gaHX-BQW9Vrb3Uxxaeybky5_oJIyRVvq193iFmHsmQKB9Vpu9Erc6H_M0PpiAMlQLR8pIxGUJ9wbNknJAvpXqdsDA5J4qRasN5KFQU,&typo=1>
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