(Michigan) State Supreme Court backs voter photo ID law

Source: Detroit News

State Supreme Court backs voter photo ID law

Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

LANSING -- A decade-old state law requiring voters to shows photo identification at the polling place is constitutional, a divided Michigan Supreme Court ruled this morning.

On a 5-2 vote -- with Republicans in favor and Democrats in opposition -- the high court upheld the 1996 law, which never took effect because then-Attorney General Frank Kelley ruled that it violated the 14th Amendment, which guarantees the right to vote.

The issue has been at the center of an ongoing partisan debate, with Republicans arguing the photo ID prevents election fraud, and Democrats saying it would suppress the votes of the poor, elderly, and minorities.

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Read more: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070718/UPDATE/707180441

Otherwise it sounds like a poll-tax to me.

The end of my mom's life was made miserable by a damn photo ID law in MO. It's a goddamn poll tax, especially if you have to pay to get a birth certificate to get that ID.

They are unnecessary since there has never been adequate proof that voting fraud that could be addressed by this type of legislation actually occurs and that the ID requirement would stop it even if it did.

That said, I don't understand the last line of the article.

The law allows a person without photo ID to vote, provided they sign an affidavit saying they don't have ID.

So you need ID unless you don't have it and then you don't? What's the point then?

Your vote could be challenged and invalidated probably without you even knowing it.
Republicans do not believe in Democracy just single party rule.

because they think you need a photo ID to vote and they don't have it. Just another way to shave a few more points off turnout which is often all you need to win. :(

When Von Spakovsky was in the DOJ's voting division, he overrode DOJ career civil rights attorney recommendations against Georgia's Voter ID law later ruled unconstitutional.

There are better ways to keep accurate records than to make the "customer" do it for you. Just merge the death records.

without looking at a cheatsheet and my signature matches, I am who I say I am

Funny it works for my bank over the phone