When Jimmy Carter signs off on a proposal, it's hard to dismiss it as a Republican attempt to prevent minorities or the poor from being able to exercise their right to vote.
Carter and former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker were the co-chairmen of the Commission on Federal Election Reform, which issued a report in 2005 with 87 recommendations to improve elections in the United States. One of those recommendations was for voter identification.
"Effective voter registration and voter identification are the bedrocks of a modern election system," it stated.
New Mexico took a stab at voter ID a few years ago when the Secretary of State was ordered to send out plastic, green ID cards to every voter in the state. The state spent about $1 million, but the program proved to be unmanageable. And, the law provided numerous ways for voters to fulfill the ID requirement, with or without an actual ID card.
I covered the debate in Santa Fe when that bill was passed, and saw the difficulty of trying to craft legislation that would address everybody's concerns. The biggest problem was that all involved were convinced those on the other side were trying to gain an unfair advantage.
Republicans absolutely believe that voter fraud is rampant, and it's all being directed by liberal groups like ACORN. Democrats absolutely believe that voter ID is just another in a long list of tactics designed to intimidate poor, uneducated voters and keep them from the polls. And, both sides have plenty of ammunition from past elections to back up their arguments.
The voter ID requirement was part of an omnibus election reform bill passed in 2006 that also brought back the paper-ballot system, and included tough, new regulations for third-party registration agents — groups like ACORN that actively seek to register new voters.
But just this past Friday, FBI agents were in Albuquerque meeting with members from the Bernalillo County Clerk's Office about 1,400 voter registration cards suspected to be fraudulent.
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