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Study vindicates failed voter ID bill, supporters say Tuesday, Jan 1, 2008 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Supporters of a failed bill during the 2007 legislation session to would have required voters to show photo identification at the polls said Monday they felt vindicated by a recent study that suggests the requirement does not affect voter turnout. Critics of the measure, which did not make it out of a House committee, said it would discourage poor people and minorities from voting. However, the head of a University of Missouri study said he found no evidence to support such a conclusion. Supporters suggested the results could bolster their case for revisiting the voter ID issue in the 2009 session, depending on how the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a constitutional challenge of the Indiana voter ID law on which the study was based. "You're required to have a photo ID to get a library card, buy a video from Blockbuster and get on an airplane, but you're not (to vote) for president of the United States. How sad is that?" said Rep. Jon Woods, R-Springdale, who co-sponsored the bill. Woods said the 2007 bill was an attempt to reduce voter fraud, but critics said they would remain stedfast against a voter photo ID requirement in Arkansas. "I oppose any effort to make voting more difficult, regardless of the impact on turnout," Rep. Steve Harrelson, D-Texakana, said Monday after being informed of the study. Jeffrey Milyo, a University of Missouri economics and public affairs professor, analyzed county-level voter turnout in Indiana in 2002, before that state's voter ID requirement went into effect, and the 2006 mid-term elections, after it became law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls. The study results, first compiled in October and revised in December, said the study "found no consistent or statistically significant evidence that the photo ID law depressed turnout in counties with greater percentages of minority, poor or elderly voters," Milyo said Monday. State Rep. Dan Greenberg, D-Little Rock, lead sponsor of the Arkansas legislation, called the study "probably the most statistically sophisticated version of the discussion over" whether to mandate photo identification. Greenberg said the study also "vindicates the recommendation" of former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker III, who suggested in 2005 that a voter photo ID was needed. The measure he supported would require voters to show photo identification issued by the Arkansas or U.S. government at polls. Dale Charles of Little Rock, a member of the NAACP's national board of directors, spoke against the proposal during legislative hearings last year and questioned the University of Missouri study Monday. Charles cited studies by Rutgers University and Ohio State University that found blacks are 5.7 percent less likely to vote in states that have photo ID requirements. "There was not enough data to make a judgment on," he said about the University of Missouri study, adding that several years of elections should be studied, not just one before and one after the law went into effect. Charles said requiring a photo ID would dilute the election process and keep poor people and many blacks away from the polls. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the Indiana law and is expected to rule on its constitutionality by summer. Greenberg said he plans to bring the proposal back before the state legislature in 2009 if the Supreme Court rules it constitutional in Indiana. |
