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knowledge is power
Papers, Please
Why you’re hearing so much about voter ID laws this year. By Suevon Lee ProPublica
Michael Prados,
a 12-year-old who blogs as “Jr. Food Critic,” was the Louisiana winner of Michelle Obama’s Healthy Lunch Challenge, in which American children were invited to contribute nutritious recipes. Prados, a Baton Rouge student who often writes about New Orleans restaurants, won for his recipe for Gulf fish tacos. He was seated next to the first lady at the first Kids’ State Dinner in the East Room of the White House Aug. 20, and he met President Barack Obama.
The American Association for Retired Persons (AARP)
v
will hold its annual Life@50+ convention in New Orleans next month. AARP volunteers will work in the community on 14 projects, from food banks to public schools, and last week the organization announced the volunteer slots on half the projects are completely filled.
Ron Brocato,
In so-called nonstrict photo ID states — Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Idaho, South Dakota and Hawaii — individuals are requested to show photo ID but can still vote if they don’t have one. Instead, they may be asked to sign affidavits affirming their identity or provide a signature that will be compared with those in registration records. steps to change election results or it involves absentee ballots which voter ID laws can’t prevent,” he said. An analysis by News21, a national investigative reporting project, identified 10 voter impersonation cases out of 2,068 alleged election fraud cases since 2000 – or one out of every 15 million prospective voters. One of the most vocal supporters of strict voter ID laws, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, told The Houston Chronicle earlier this month that his office has prosecuted about 50 cases of voter fraud in recent years. “I know for a fact that voter fraud is real, that it must be stopped, and that voter ID is one way to page 9
c’est
author of The Golden Game: When Prep Football Was King In New Orleans, has teamed up with John and Johnny Blancher of Ye Olde College Inn to create the New Orleans Prep Sports Hall of Fame. Almost 80 inductees are honored on the restaurant’s walls as the first class of athletes, coaches and officials. The “Wall of Legends” will have its formal introduction Sept. 6 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Tony Perkins,
the former Louisiana state representative who now heads the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council (FRC), jumped to the defense of U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Missouri, after Akin’s statement last week about “legitimate rape.” While most of the GOP distanced itself from Akin, Perkins said the FRC supported Akin “fully and completely.” Perkins added, “I think that Todd Akin is getting a really bad break here.”
?
Now that Gov. Bobby Jindal is out of vice presidential contention, do you think his star will continue to rise in the GOP?
Vote on “C’est What?” at www.bestofneworleans.com
65%
No
20%
Maybe a Cabinet post if Romney wins
15%
Yes
THis weeK’s question:
How do you think the statewide school voucher implementation has gone so far?
Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > auGust 28 > 2012
oter ID laws have become a political flashpoint in what’s gearing up to be another close election year. Supporters say the laws — which 30 states have now enacted in some form — are needed to combat voter fraud, while critics see them as a tactic to disenfranchise voters. We’ve taken a step back to look at the facts behind the laws and break down the issues at the heart of the debate. So what are these laws? They are measures intended to ensure that a registered voter is who he says he is and not an impersonator trying to cast a ballot in someone else’s name. The laws, most of which have been passed in the last several years, require that registered voters show ID before they’re allowed to vote. Exactly what they need to show varies. Some states require a government-issued photo, while in others, a current utility bill or bank statement is sufficient. As a registered voter, I thought I always had to supply some form of ID during an election. Not quite. Per federal law, first-time voters who registered by mail must present a photo ID or copy of a current bill or bank statement. Some states generally advise voters to bring some form of photo ID. But prior to the 2006 election, no state ever required a voter to produce a government-issued photo ID as a condition to voting. In 2006, Indiana became the first state to enact a strict photo ID law, a law that was upheld two years later by the U.S. Supreme Court. Why are these voter ID laws so strongly opposed? Voting law opponents contend these laws disproportionately affect elderly, minority and low-income groups that tend to vote Democratic. Obtaining photo ID can be costly and burdensome, with even free state ID requiring documents like a birth certificate that can cost up to $25 in some places. According to a study from NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice, 11 percent of voting-age citizens lack necessary photo ID while many people in rural areas have trouble accessing ID offices. During closing arguments in a recent case over Texas’ voter ID law, a lawyer for the state brushed aside these obstacles as the “reality to life of choosing to live in that part of Texas.” Attorney General Eric Holder and others have compared the laws to a poll tax, in which Southern states during the Jim Crow era imposed voting fees, which discouraged the working class and poor, many of whom were minorities, from voting. Given the sometimes costly steps required to obtain needed documents today, legal scholars argue that photo ID laws create a new “financial barrier to the ballot box.” Just how well-founded are fears of voter fraud? There have been only a small number of fraud cases resulting in a conviction. A New York Times analysis from 2007 identified 120 cases filed by the Justice Department over five years. These cases, many of which stemmed from incorrect registration forms or misunderstanding over voter eligibility, resulted in 86 convictions. There are “very few documented cases,” said UC Irvine professor and election law specialist Rick Hasen. “When you do see election fraud, it invariably involves election officials taking
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