Does the GOP favor Vote Fraud Protection?

Since it’s become easier to vote – in some places you only have to show up on election day and not too many questions are asked – Americans are increasingly alarmed that non-citizens, felons, and repeat voters are deciding elections.

Today John Fund in the WSJ has plenty to say about what should be called Vote Fraud Protection. Excerpts:

Amid all the disputes over immigration in Congress, one amendment is being proposed that in theory should unite people in both parties. How about requiring that everyone show some form of identification before voting in federal elections?

Polls show overwhelming support for the idea, and there is increasing concern that more illegal aliens are showing up on voter registration rolls.

But the fact that photo ID isn't likely to pass shows both how deeply emotional the immigration issue has become and how bitter congressional politics have become with elections only 5 1/2 months away.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican whip, is proposing the photo ID amendment. He notes that Mexico and many other countries require the production of such identification in their own elections, and that the idea builds on the suggestion of last year's bipartisan election reform commission headed by former president Jimmy Carter and former secretary of state James Baker.

The Carter-Baker commission issued 87 recommendations to improve the functioning of election systems. …

[The] biggest surprise was that 18 of 21 commissioners backed a requirement that voters show some form of photo identification. They argued that with Congress passing the Real ID Act to standardize security protections for drivers' licenses in all 50 states, the time had come to standardize voter ID requirements.

Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle joined two other commissioners in complaining that the ID requirements would be akin to a Jim Crow-era "poll tax" and would restrict voting among the poor or elderly who might lack such an ID.
Mr. Daschle's racially charged analogy is preposterous.

Almost everyone needs photo ID in today's modern world. Andrew Young, the former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambassador, believes that in an era when people have to show ID to rent a video or cash a check, "requiring ID can help poor people" who otherwise might be even more marginalized by not having one.

Republicans who keep asking, “How can we get voters back on our side?” might ask themselves a question.

Do they have a strategy for assuring voters that the GOP is the party of Vote Fraud Protection?

Why not legislation in this session of the Congress to make photo IDs necessary starting in the ’08 presidential election?

Sure, there will be those like Daschle who’ll scream “racism”. That won’t be anything new.

If fact, it will be a lot like Democratic Minority Senate Leader Harry Reid screaming “racism” in response to a proposal to make English America’s official language.

If the GOP is out front on both those issues they’ll be doing what’s best for America and I think helping themselves in the bargain.

On the other hand, if many GOP Members of Congress are going to get into a lot of hemming and hawing about this and that concerning the two issues, I think a lot of voters might just hem and haw at home on election day.

Fund’s entire column is here.