Obomination: President Does Not Change Stance on Voter ID, Unlike Colleague

One of the earliest supporters of Obama, former Alabama Congressman Artur Davis, changed his mind and now supports voter ID.   This reversal, unfortunately, hasn’t seemed to influence the stance of the 44^th President.  Obama’s reluctance to change today on the issue of photo identification is an obomination.

This week, Davis wrote an op-ed in The Montgomery Advertiser saying, “I've changed my mind on voter ID laws -- I think Alabama did the right thing in passing one -- and I wish I had gotten it right when I was in political office.” He added, “demanding integrity in voting is neither racist, nor raw party politics.”   However, Obama recently said of voter ID laws, “I think that’s a big mistake, and I have made sure that our Justice Department is taking a look at [them].” 

Artur Davis, who represented Alabama’s 7^th District (of which Selma is a part), was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.  Davis admits that he “took the path of least resistance on this subject for an African American politician.”   He explained that, “without any evidence to back it up, I lapsed into the rhetoric of various partisans and activists.”

The “path of least resistance” involved voting against photo ID requirements and challenging voter ID as discriminatory. When he served in Congress, Davis had voted no on the Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006, which would have required photo identification in federal elections. Like Davis, Obama was active in opposing voter ID in Congress.  Like Davis, then-Senator Obama proposed a concurrent resolution that “any effort to impose photo identification requirements for voting should be rejected.”  Moreover, the resolution stated that the DOJ should “challenge any State law that limits a citizen's ability to vote based on discriminatory photo identification requirements.”  

 Davis now laments the fact that votes are cancelled out by vote fraud, and that is the real way black votes are suppressed.  He said, “the most aggressive contemporary voter suppression in the African American community, at least in Alabama, is the wholesale manufacture of ballots, at the polls and absentee, in parts of the Black Belt.”

Davis wasn’t just a supporter on the sidelines of Obama. Davis issued a speech seconding the nomination Obama for president. News reports indicated that background checks were made on Davis for a possible appointment in the Obama administration.  This longstanding political friend’s change should have made an impact on Obama but unfortunately hasn’

Davis should be commended for breaking party ranks to admit he was wrong before to oppose voter ID and now taking a strong stance to support the common-sense electoral reform.  Now this is the type of change America can believe in.