House Passes Voter ID Law

Despite heavy opposition from Democrats.

The House yesterday passed legislation that would require voters to show a valid photo identification in federal elections over the overwhelming objections of Democrats who compared the bill to segregation-era measures aimed at disenfranchising Southern blacks.

The Federal Election Integrity Act was approved on a nearly party-line 228-196 vote. Republicans backed the bill 224-3, with three nonvoters; Democrats opposed it 192-4, with five nonvoters. They were joined in opposition by the House’s one independent member.

The bill, which faces an uncertain future in the Senate, is part of a Republican effort to complete before the November elections a package of proposals aimed at curbing illegal immigration and its effects on ordinary Americans.

This is the part that gets me:

The so-called “Voter ID” bill, aimed at stamping out voter fraud, would require voters in federal elections to provide picture identification by 2008 and provide proof of U.S. citizenship by 2010. It was among the recommendations made last year by the bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform, headed by former President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a Republican.

“Effective voter registration and voter identification are bedrocks of a modern election system,” they wrote in their final report.

Voter ID laws are supported by Jimmy Carter, arguably America’s most liberal President ever. If Jimmy Carter of all people can understand that voter identification is a “bedrock” part of our electoral system, then why on earth are Democrats opposing it?
This may give us a clue:

But Democrats, siding with groups that work on behalf of minorities and illegal aliens, called the bill a “modern-day poll tax” and said it would place an insurmountable burden on voters and infringe upon their voting rights.

Rep. Brian Bilbray, California Republican, countered that the real infringement upon voting rights would be allowing fraudulent votes by the dead or illegal “to cancel out legitimate votes.”

“That is the violation of the Voters Rights Act that we have not addressed,” he told colleagues before the vote.

I think it’s pretty clear that Democrats oppose voter ID laws because allowing only legal citizens who are motivated enough to spend ten minutes at a government office to obtain an ID to vote would be devastating to their election prospects.
The argument Rep. Bilbray makes is a powerful one. Without voter ID laws legally-voting citizens face the chance that their vote will be canceled out by a non-citizen or other illegal type of voter. Democrats spend a lot of time arguing about “rights” people have to be able to vote without having to obtain any sort of ID, but how about the right citizens have not to have their vote canceled out by people who aren’t supposed to be voting at all? Or who vote more than once?
That’s not fair either, and a voter ID law is a reasonable solution to the problem.
Brenarlo Adds: North Dakota Representative Earl Pomeroy (D) voted against the act. Apparently he doesn’t mind voter fraud.