Who needs voting rights anyway?

Georgia has signed into law, and it's been approved federally, to require photo ID at polling stations from anyone wishing to vote.

On the pro- side, this would help decrease voting fraud.

"Requiring valid, photographic identification is a common sense step to ensure voter integrity and sound elections," Gov. Sonny Perdue said Friday in a written statement. ...

Perdue, like other Republicans, has said the measure is aimed at preventing voter fraud. "It will not be a hardship on any voter," Perdue said when he signed the bill.

The new Georgia law also allows people to vote absentee without an excuse, and for a longer period. Those votes by mail would not require a picture ID.


(CNN)

On the con- side, who do you know that doesn't have a photo ID? Most likely no one. And most likely your acquaintances are young professional whites.

Most of Georgia's black lawmakers walked out at the state Capitol when it was approved.

Democrats had argued the idea was a political move by the GOP to depress voting among minorities, the elderly and the poor -- all traditional bases for Democrats.

The measure would eliminate the use of several currently accepted forms of voter identification, such as Social Security cards, birth certificates or utility bills.

... Perdue signed the measure in April, and it needed the Justice Department's approval before taking effect. Under the Voting Rights Act, Georgia and other states with a history of suppressing minority voting must get federal permission to change their voting laws.

Nineteen states require voters to show identification, but only five request photo ID's, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Those states -- Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and South Dakota -- allow voters without a photo ID to use other forms of identification or sign an affidavit of identity.

... "This decision takes us back to the dark past of literacy tests and other insidious devices that were carefully devised to hamper the participation of all of our citizens in the political process," [Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, a veteran of the civil rights movement] said.

... Political observers say Republicans tend to benefit the most from absentee balloting.

(CNN)

I never realized how political just the whole process of voting is!