Liberal Washington Post columnist (but I repeat myself) E.J. Dionne Jr. picks on Indiana -- and all the states that followed our example by instituting voter ID laws:
These statutes are not neutral. Their greatest impact will be to reduce turnout among African Americans, Latinos and the young. It is no accident that these groups were key to Barack Obama's victory in 2008 — or that the laws in question are being enacted in states where Republicans control state governments.
[. . .]
In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court, by 6 to 3, upheld Indiana's voter ID statute. So seeking judicial relief may be difficult. Nonetheless, the Justice Department should vigorously challenge these laws, particularly in states covered by the Voting Rights Act. And the court should be asked to review the issue again in light of new evidence that these laws have a real impact in restricting the rights of particular voter groups.
“This requirement is just a poll tax by another name,” state Sen. Wendy Davis declared when Texas was debating its ID law early this year. In the bad old days, poll taxes, now outlawed by the 24th Amendment, were used to keep African Americans from voting. Even if the Supreme Court didn't see things her way, Davis is right. This is the civil rights issue of our moment.
So, Hoosier Republicans are championing a law that helps them by discouraging tradionally Democratic voters, which makes them both unfairly partisan and racist. Law professor Ann Althouse sees Dionne, in "getting histrionic about voter ID laws" and "making it as racial as he possibly can," as revealing more about himself than perhaps he intended:
... he himself propagates racism in the form of an assumption that black people have trouble performing the simplest task.
I think it's really just a case of a rabid partisan being very good at seeing that trait in his enemies but blind to his own. OK, fine, no studies have shown actual cases of voter fraud. On the other hand, those challenging Indiana's law in their losing Supreme Court case couldn't cite a single case of a voter who had been disenfranchised by it. So let's cut out the nyah-nyah-nyah, all of admit to being partisans and call it a day.
