Ohioans face serious threats to the integrity of our democracy: income inequality, partisan gerrymandering, big-money politics. Voter fraud is not among these threats.
Yet rather than address such pressing concerns, Republicans in the state House are again taking up a bill that would require Ohioans to present photo identification when they vote. This unnecessary measure would do nothing to make elections more secure. But it would do much to keep voters, especially poor and minority Ohioans, away from the polls.
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Ohio law requires voters to verify their identity with a photo ID or another document, such as a home utility bill or bank statement — one of the strongest rules in the country. Most states don’t require voters to verify their identity at all, or allow them to do so through less-strict means.
Nine state have passed photo identification laws since a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2008 allowed states to require voters to present photo ID. Proponents of such laws claim they’re needed to crack down on a growing national epidemic of voter fraud.
In reality, voter fraud is exceedingly rare in Ohio, as it is elsewhere in the country. According to Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, the state’s chief election official, 44 non-U.S. citizens cast ballots in 2013 and 2014, out of millions of total votes. Most of the 135 claims of voter fraud in the 2012 presidential election that were found credible were cases not of voter impersonation, but of people trying to vote twice, which would not be addressed by the photo ID bill.
The federal Voting Rights Act prohibits governments from posing discriminatory barriers to voting, such as literacy tests and poll taxes. Photo ID laws effectively function as a poll tax on poor voters who cannot afford the fees for a driver’s license or passport.
The Ohio bill would provide a free state ID to residents below the federal poverty line. But requiring poor residents to apply for one still poses an unnecessary barrier — and the poverty line, at $11,700 per year for an individual, is an absurdly low standard.
Secretary Husted, a Republican, opposes the photo ID bill, saying it wouldn’t address noncitizen voting. His office repeatedly has asked the General Assembly to approve legislation that would allow Ohioans to register to vote online, a common-sense policy that would make elections more secure and save money. Lawmakers have refused to act on that proposal.
Republicans who back the photo ID bill claim they’re committed to keeping elections open and secure. Yet they continue to advance needless legislation that would disfranchise poor Ohioans, minorities, and other groups that tend to vote Democratic.
The current bill follows another proposal, vetoed by Republican Gov. John Kasich this year, that would have required out-of-state college students who vote in Ohio to obtain in-state driver’s licenses.
Ohio law already provides reliable ways of verifying voters’ identities at the polls. If lawmakers want to improve Ohio’s election system, they should focus on making voter registration easier and more accessible, not restricting the vote.
First Published May 6, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
