For years now, Arkansas has played political badminton with voter ID laws. The people seem to want such laws, and elect legislators who propose and pass such laws. Then the courts get involved and throw out the laws. Then lawmakers re-propose and re-pass the laws. And another court or six chimes in. Back and forth. It's about as entertaining as badminton itself. That is to say, it isn't much.
There are at least a couple of voter identification bills/proposals/amendments floating around the Ledge these days. Our considered editorial opinion on all of them is: Yes.
It shouldn't be this hard to do. There should be a way, and probably is a way this year, to pass a voter ID law that doesn't interfere with a free people casting their ballots, and thus the courts will leave be. Maybe Mark Lowery, a state rep from Maumelle, has the puzzle figured out this time. His bill--now called House Bill 1047--has been amended enough that if somebody showed up at the polling place without an ID, he or she could sign a sworn statement, under penalty of perjury, that said voter is indeed said voter, and can cast a provisional ballot until a signature could be verified.
Maybe it's not simple. But it's simple enough. And important enough.
"I think any argument that there is going to be disenfranchising of the voter, we have significantly mitigated," Rep. Lowery said. "And the trade-off is we get a better electoral process that has more integrity, creates more confidence by the voters, and hopefully will create more voter turnout."
Maybe. But let's not assume that those who'd argue against voter identification will be satisfied. (They never are.)
Sure enough, even this bill has its opponents who are already complaining that the state is trying to take away the right to vote. Especially from black folks, Hispanics and the elderly. Disenfranchisement! Jim Crow! Irreparable harm!
But despite all the overheated rhetoric coming from more excitable quarters out there, voter ID is anything but un-American. It's as American as apple pie and voter fraud. And if you don't think election fraud is an on-going tradition in this union, and even this state, google "Hudson Hallum." He's the decidedly former state rep from Crittenden County who had to resign his seat after pleading guilty to election fraud not that long ago.
Taking steps to guard against voter or election fraud isn't a search for a non-existent problem. (For that, see the bathroom bill.) Protecting the integrity of the ballot is akin to safeguarding democracy. Maybe more than just akin. Because if the integrity of the ballot is jeopardized, so is the whole system of democratic self-government. Now that's what we'd call irreparable harm.
As an extra added bonus, and maybe to make sure his bill gets through challenges, opposition and even the courts, here is a list of all the identifications Experienced Voter could show at the polls:
• A driver's license.
• A U.S. passport.
• Employee badges.
• Student ID cards.
• U.S. military IDs.
• Public-assistance ID cards.
• Concealed-handgun carry licenses, for goodness sakes.
• And even those free voter-verification cards that every single county in Arkansas is prepared to provide its voters for nothing more than a please and thank-you. Or, legally and technically, not even that.
The next time somebody makes the argument that voter identification laws amount to suppressing the vote, more specifically to help conservatives suppress the vote, we'd like them to see the liberal democracies in the Netherlands, France, Ireland, Germany and all the other nations that have such laws on the books. And then we'd ask them why so many of the world's democracies have their own voter ID laws and insist that only their citizens vote in their elections, and only once per. And we'd also ask them why these United States, including the one called Arkansas, should be any less vigilant when it comes to protecting our democracy.
Editorial on 02/24/2017