If the North Carolina state Assembly has its way, House Bill 351 will become law despite a highly publicized veto by the Democratic Governor Beverly Perdue on June 23, 2011. HB 351 was written to, “Restore confidence in government” and does so by mandating a photo identification as a requirement to vote in any election. According to Jordan Shaw, Communications Director for House Speaker Thom Tillis, “…the opportunity for voter fraud is very high.” Governor Perdue, however, views HB 351 as an impediment to voting. Both sides cite integrity in the system as an ultimate goal.
The Need for Election Reform
Electoral reform is needed, not only in North Carolina, but across the nation. Although it is a federal crime for non-citizens to vote, there are no safeguards. A worker with the North Carolina Board of Elections, during a telephone interview, stated that proof of citizenship is not required to register to vote. “You check off a box,” the worker stated. Applications are then sent to the state capital and checked against federal databases. Non-citizens convicted of voting in an election may never become U.S. citizens, according to a North Carolina attorney.
Currently, North Carolina voters only need to state their name and address when voting. As Shaw commented during a telephone conversation, to get into the governor’s mansion in Raleigh requires a photo ID, yet no such requirement exists at the voting booth.
Opposition to the Photo Identification Card
HB 351, Section 163-166.13 lists acceptable forms of photo identification cards such as a valid state driver’s license, a military ID, a passport, or even a tribal identification card. The amended section, however, details a state-produced voter identification card. In his op-ed column in the Winston Salem Journal (July 6, 2011) Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina, claims that the bill “will disproportionately harm young adults, low-income voters, people of color, seniors who no longer drive and women who change their names.”
Hall states that, “an ID is required when you first register.” No ID is required, however, to change or amend existing voter registration information, a fact Hall does not mention. Although, as Hall intimates, there is “scant evidence of voter impersonation,” there are ample examples, notably on college campuses, to register young voters without seeing any identification.
Partisan Rhetoric Rather than Rational Discussion
The debate on election reform is further muddled by cheap partisan rhetoric rather than substantive discussion. In the June 30, 2011 Winston Salem Journal, Nathan Tabor, Republican Party Chairman for Forsyth County and an announced GOP candidate for the 13th Congressional district, claims that Governor Perdue’s veto related “pure and simple” to state Democrats “struggling to maintain…power.” Tabor, a Tea Party supporter, regularly equates Democrats with the image of dangerous progressive liberals.
Tabor writes that, “in too many states when registering to vote, applicants merely have to check off the box that says ‘U.S. Citizen.’” He criticizes the fact that no identification is “required…to confirm U.S. citizenship…” But North Carolina does not check citizenship status either, and HB 351 never addresses this issue. Tabor did not respond to emails.
Although Tabor cites a Civitas Poll of January 2011 showing overwhelming support among voters from both parties approving of a photo identification card, many citizens see this bill as another step toward “Big Brother” or even the millennial “mark of the beast,” equated with a government-mandated ID card. Will it end with a voter picture ID card?
North Carolina Needs an Early 20th Century “Wisconsin Plan”
While voter reform is needed, what North Carolina really needs is the opportunity for a recall vote and the proposition, allowing everyday citizens to submit changes to the law and the state constitution. The GOP won control of the Assembly in 2010 for the first time in one hundred years, but has only managed to succeed in angering voters with a bent toward social issues and a state budget that will setback education for decades, according to the Democratic opposition.
The acrimony between the GOP-led Assembly and Governor Perdue (Speaker Tillis referred to Perdue as “incompetent” during an unguarded moment in June 2011) will force voters to rethink choices in 2012. Mark Twain once quipped, “If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.” Founding Father John Adams believed that the end of elections in America was the beginning of slavery. Real reform requires substantive discussion by all parties.
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