Democrats should work to get the best deal possible on voter ID
Published March 12, 2013
By Brad Crone
By Brad Crone, Democratic PR and campaign consultant and NC SPIN panelist. Democrats in the Legislature will have to make a key decision: do we stand up and opposed voter identification on any level or do you accept the fact it is going to become law and work to get the best piece of legislation possible?
I believe Democrats would be wise to work with the super Republican majority and get the best deal you can. Democrats don’t want to look like total obstructionists especially when voter id has a majority of public support.
Legislative leaders should include funding to have photo identification units at the polling places making it easy and accessible for voters to obtain photo identification – that seems like a common-sense idea to me.
I’m told the cost of having photo-id units at the polls will cost more than $3 million but if the Republicans want photo-id they should be willing to invest a little money to make it viable.
The NAACP and Democrats and minorities have a right, perhaps an obligation, to make sure photo-id does not impede citizen participation. We have come way too far in our civil rights efforts to turn back the clock. That’s why Democrats need to work with the GOP to ensure North Carolina’s voter-id law is reasonable and will actually improve the elections process.
Anything less will end up in our federal courts.
March 13, 2013 at 9:23 am
djofraleigh says:
The Republicans want the Democrats involved so they can say later, "you had your chance and input" and the Democrats want to use this as a rallying point politically.
The more confidence the voters have in the process the better, I say. I want voter ID proof since the time my spouse and I went to vote and found we had already voted (so they say), so our ballots were not included in the vote, but set aside.
Now, I carry my no-picture voter ID card to the polls and they refuse to look at it saying it is not needed, which offends me. Why does the Election Board bother to mail the voter cards out in the first place if they are not needed?
Republicans have not included absentee ballots, which will be hard, but there is a loophole to be closed.
