What hath RON wrought? According to today's Columbus Dispatch:
Sen. Jeff Jacobson, a Vandalia Republican and leader in crafting changes to
the measure, said it would impose the same identification requirements at the
polls as those adopted this fall for voters casting absentee ballots.
Voters could provide any number of documents, including a driver’s license,
paycheck, utility bill or bank statement. Voters also could sign sworn
statements declaring their identities or submit the last four digits of their
Social Security numbers, but that would allow them to cast only provisional
ballots, which are counted within 10 days after the election if deemed valid.
The proposal is far better than the photo ID proposal that died in committe earlier this year. Whether the Amish Problem was part of the change is unclear. Pegging it to the Issue 2 preemption legislation was a nice touch -- try to reform things and we will hit you with voting barriers.
Still, this is a decent compromise to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Republican supporters still peg these proposals on their fear that Dick Hertz and Mike Hunt will actually show up and vote. They say it with such sincerity that I genuinely don't know whether they are being stupid, or if they just think the rest of us are.
2 comments:
Thanks, Daniella. I appreciate your comments, though admittedly I don't take compliments well. Consider me virtually blushing. I'm glad we've moved beyond my lunkheaded comments on BFD.
Hey Pho,
Nice post and thanks for helping us out of towners [like me] up to speed on the NEO politics...
Although the House may be making progress in the fact that this proposition is less draconian, it's still a bit baffling why they're so motivated to keep the authenticity of voters, without realizing that any new law would disenfranchise voters than enable them.
Rather, how to allow citizens to vote at the polling stations in a timely manner (for them) should be a more important issue. Of course, availability of enough voting booths and even the possibility of allowing voting to take place over two days are possible actions to take.
Sometimes, it's a bit amusing to stand from the sidelines and watch the bickering take place (though gets old and disheartening quickly).
College kids like me don't need to always be written off by the politicians as we usually are ;)
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