Battle Begins in California on Voter ID Proposal

A recent piece in San Bernardino and the Inland Empire's The Sun, discusses the battle lines being drawn in a proposed ballot initiative that "would require voters to show a drivers license or other government-issued photo ID before being given a ballot." The man behind the proposal, California State Senator George Runner, will have until May 6 to gather approximately 434,000 signatures from registered California voters.

Predictably, opponents have said that Runner is trying to single out minorities and engage in voter suppression. A member of a local ACORN organizing committee in Fontana, Bobbi Jo Chavarria, argued that Runner's VoteSAFE initiative would lead to racial profiling at the polls: "If you're walking in with blond hair and blue eyes, you might not get ID'd," she said. "But if you're a person of color or you have a Spanish surname, you're definit[ely] going to be (asked for ID)." Chavarria added, the initiative's "sole purpose is to disenfranchise voters." There's more: "People see the writing on the wall," said Gil Navarro, a [L]atino activist and member of the San Bernardino County Board of Education. "They see ... that the demographics are changing, that the [L]atino population is increasing and becoming more politically astute. They're becoming registered voters, and that's scaring people like Runner."

"Runner said there's no motive behind the initiative beyond ensuring the sanctity of the state's electoral process and enfranchising more of the state's military personnel. Along with requiring voters to show ID at the polls, Runner's VoteSAFE initiative would require the DMV to issue photo IDs to voters who cannot afford a drivers license and allow more time for absentee ballots from troops overseas to be counted." 

Opponents ignore the fact that Americans overwhelmingly support voter identification requirements. For example, a Rasmussen Poll taken in the height of the hyper-partisan period immediately prior to the General Election in October of 2008, found that 76 percent of Americans, including three-fourths of Democrats, believe in a photo identification requirement (only 18% polled did not believe in one). In addition, members of the bipartisan Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Electoral Reform overwhelmingly endorsed a photo identification requirement with 18 yeas to 3 nays.

History appears to be on Runner's side, at least as far as getting the initiative on the ballot. The Sun reports that Runner "has a track record of getting initiatives on the ballot," with previous initiatives in 2006 and 2008 making it to the ballot. We will keep you posted on the initiative's progress.