Voting Rights Advocates Hit Virginia Governor on New ID Law

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Voting rights advocates see Gov. Bob McDonnell trying to drag Virginia back to the Jim Crow era of voting restrictions.

That concern is being aired after the Republican governor signed into law bills that his party members pushed through the General Assembly to require each voter to show an ID document to cast a ballot that will count.

“Gov. McDonnell has demonstrated his allegiance to partisan politics instead of doing the right thing by vetoing these bills,” said state Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus.

“Voting is a fundamental right of American citizens,” she said in accusing the governor of raising an “unnecessary barrier to prevent citizens from exercising that right.”

Locke said the new bill revives memories of Virginia’s long history of using poll taxes, intimidation and phony tests to bar Black people and the poor from voting— an era that was was only halted by passage of a federal law in 1965 to protect voters from state action to keep them away from the ballot box.

Claims that this new law will protect the integrity of the vote are flat wrong, Sen. Locke said. “Virginia does not have widespread voter fraud. Quite the contrary,” Sen. Locke said. There is no evidence that people “are running to the polls to vote multiple times.”

Locke joins other voting rights advocates around the nation in their perception that the new voting laws are not only unfair, but harken to days of segregation. Many have speculated that the new laws are contrived to abate Black votes in the election campaign of President Barack Obama.

The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has posted what it calls a "Map of Shame", documenting the progression of regressive voting laws in Virginia and across the nation. The interactive map can be found at http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/page?id=0042.

Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, chairman  of the Senate Democratic Caucus, called the voter ID law a blow to the state’s progress. “I am disappointed and dismayed,” he said in a statement, “that the governor and his Republican allies in the General Assembly continue their partisan, divisive, rightwing, radical agenda unabated.

“The right to vote, to participate in our country’s electoral process is the most basic right of a citizen,” he continued. “The very foundation of our democracy is the right to vote, and when we put impediments before our citizens’ voting rights, we endanger our very form of government.”

The Virginia Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union also denounced the new law. In a statement to the Free Press, Kent Willis, outgoing executive director of the Virginia ACLU, charged the new law would “make voting more difficult in general and will have a disproportionate impact on minorities, the elderly and low-income persons, who are less likely to carry IDs.”

The voter ID legislation requires those going to the polls to provide state-approved identification or be forced to cast a provisional ballot. Such ballots are only counted if a voter later provides local election officials a valid ID. The governor directed the State Board of Elections to send new voter IDs to every registered Virginia voter.

“Every qualified citizen has the right to cast one vote,” said Gov. McDonnell in signing the legislation that changes procedures for handling voters who show up at the polls without acceptable identification.

Previously, such voters could sign affidavit affirming they are who they say they are to be allowed to vote. After July 1, such individuals can only cast a provisional ballot. Unlike other states that have pushed similar bills, Virginia’s new law does not require people to show a photo ID.

The law that Gov. McDonnell signed does provide a long list of permissible identification, some that include a photo and others that do not.

Besides voter registration cards, other forms of acceptable ID include Social Security cards, driver’s licenses, a copy of a current utility bill, a bank statement, a government check, a private paycheck showing the voter’s name and home address or a valid Virginia college student ID card.

Also, Medicare and Medicaid cards and other government identification cards issued by a city, state or federal agency would be acceptable.

The Trice Edney News Wire added reporting to this story.