LITTLE ROCK — A Northwest Arkansas legislator said he will try again next year to get a law passed requiring that a person have a photo identification card to vote.
“It’s to help protect the integrity of the elections,” said state Rep. Bryan King, R-Berryville. “Presenting a photo ID is so common today, it’s not an obstacle for people to be able to vote.”
Proponents say such laws help stop voter fraud. Opponents say the laws disenfranchise the poor and benefit Republicans.
Fewer poor people have government-issued ID cards, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. And, at least in theory, poor people are more likely to vote for candidates in the Democratic Party.
In Arkansas, a person without a driver’s license can use a state identification card to vote. The application fee for a state ID card is $20.
To obtain a state identification card, it may be necessary to present a birth certificate. If a person doesn’t have one, the cost for an Arkansas birth certificate is $12.
“I think any kind of impediment to the free exercise of the American right to vote is something we ought to avoid,” said state Rep. Uvalde Lindsey, D-Fayetteville.
Lindsey said he knows of no instances of voter fraud in Arkansas.
“It seems like a solution chasing a problem that doesn’t exist,” he said. “If it’s not voter fraud, what is it?”
King said most stories of voter fraud are anecdotal. A Marion County election official told him a convicted felon tried to vote under someone else’s name and ultimately was not allowed to vote, he said.
King also mentioned a story told by Malcolm Winters of Centerton.
Winters, a vice president at First Community Bank in Jane, Mo., said his father, Myles Winters, moved from Poinsett County, Ark., to Illinois in 1966. When he moved back to Arkansas in 1982, “he discovered he had voted in every election since he moved.”
“You hear people say there’s not a lot of voter fraud, but the reality is you haven’t had people out there cracking down on this,” King said. “Those are the two I’ve used as examples. This would address voter impersonation.”
Several states have passed laws requiring voters to have official identification cards that include photos. Last week, a federal appeals court struck down a Texas law requiring photo IDs for voters because of the discriminatory impact on poor people and members of minority groups. A federal court trial in South Carolina regarding that state’s voter ID law ended Friday. A ruling isn’t expected until the end of the month.
Currently, all voters in Arkansas are asked to show photo IDs at the polls, said Alex Reed, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office.
Some Arkansas voters who don’t have photo IDs are allowed to vote regular ballots, Reed said. If the voters without ID cards are “flagged” as first-time voters or because of some irregularity with their information, they will be allowed to vote using provisional ballots, he said. After the election, the county election commissioners will check those people’s voter registrations and determine whether their votes will count. That must be done during the 10-day period before the election is certified.
“I think they actually need to prove who they are when they show up to vote,” King said.
King filed a bill in the Legislature last year to require photo IDs for voters. House Bill 1797 passed 53-36 in the House with 10 members not voting. But it failed to get enough votes to move forward from the Senate’s Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs.
King said he will introduce a similar bill in the next legislative session,which begins in January, and a second bill to put the issue on the ballot for voters to decide. The Legislature can refer three proposed constitutional amendments to the voters each session.
King will represent Senate District 5 in the next session of the Legislature. District 5 includes all of Madison County and parts of Carroll, Crawford, Franklin, Johnson and Washington counties. King has no opponent in the Nov. 6 general election.
Lindsey is running for the seat in Senate District 4, which is within Washington County and includes Fayetteville.
Oklahoma voters passed a similar law by a margin of 74 percent to 26 percent in 2010. It went into effect last year. In Missouri, no photo ID is required to vote.
According to Arkansas Code Annotated 7-5-305, poll workers may ask a voter for a photo identification card or “a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck or other government document that shows the name and address of the voter.”
If the voter doesn’t have any of those documents, he’ll still allowed to vote, but the poll worker notes on the voter registration list that the voter didn’t provide identification.
After the election, county election commissioners may review the list and provide the information to the prosecuting attorney, according to the law. “The prosecuting attorney may investigate possible voter fraud,” it states.
But that seldom happens, King said.
“Some of the critics say there aren’t that many cases of voter fraud out there, but in some cases, the prosecutors look at these cases and they won’t touch them,” he said.
However, former Carroll County prosecutor John Casteel charged Eureka Springs Mayor Beau Satori, alleging that he voted twice in a county judge’s race in 2000. The charge was later dropped, according to Arkansas Democrat-Gazette archives.
Oct. 8 is the deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 6 general election, according to the Arkansas secretary ofstate’s website, sos.arkansas.gov.
Applications to registerare available at county clerks’ offices, state revenue offices, public libraries, public-assistance agencies, disability agencies, military recruitment offices, the Arkansas National Guard or through voter-registration drives.
Also, potential voters can apply by mail. They may obtain applications from their county clerks or the secretary of state’s office. Details and applications are also available online at sos.arkansas.gov.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 09/05/2012