From Demos:
In a victory for voting rights, a decision issued September 7, 2011 by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has denied certification to a proposed ballot initiative that would impose restrictive requirements for photo ID in Massachusetts elections. The decision rests on Article 9 of the Massachusetts Constitution, which guarantees “the freedom of elections.” The certification ruling likens the ID requirement to a poll tax because the proposed law makes no provision for qualified voters to obtain state-issued identification without paying a fee.
I regret that we are unable to certify that this measure complies with Article 48, Init., pt. 2, §§, 2 and 3. Section 2 states that “No proposition inconsistent with any one of the following rights of the individual, as at present declared in the declaration of rights, shall be the subject of an initiative or referendum petition: . . . freedom of elections.” The law proposed by petition 11-21 is inconsistent with the freedom of elections guaranteed in the Declaration of Rights, Mass. Const. Pt. 1, art. 9. We therefore need not decided whether the petition meets art. 48’s other requirements. Our decision, as with all decisions on certification of initiative petitions, is based solely on art. 48’s legal standards; it does not reflect any policy views the Attorney General may have on the merits of the proposed law.As more fully explained below, the proposed law would interfere with the freedom of elections not because it would require a government-issued photo identification to vote, but because there is no way for the average Massachusetts citizen to obtain such identification without paying a fee of at least $25. Although this may not be a significant burden for those citizens who already have or would obtain such identification for other purposes (e.g., a drivers’ license or state identification card), it would be an unconstitutional burden for citizens who do not otherwise have such identification and cannot afford it.
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, Governor Walker is busy getting around this:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
And this:
Voter affluence as an electoral standard violates the Equal Protection Clause. Wealth or fee-paying has no relation to voting qualifications.
In a two-month period in the spring of 1966, the last four states to still have poll tax laws had those laws declared unconstitutional by Federal courts, starting with Texas on 9 February. Decisions followed for Alabama and Virginia . Mississippi’s $2.00 poll tax (equal to $13.53 today) was the last to fall, declared unconstitutional on 8 April 1966, by a Federal panel in Jackson, Mississippi.
I really think it’s time someone asked certain political leaders why they seem to have so much difficulty understanding this simple concept. No poll taxes. Not by referendum, not by stealth, not through a state legislature, and not disguised as an ID provision. Not 25 cents, not 25 dollars, not 250 dollars. We amended the Constitution and took it all the way to the Supreme Court. We won. They lost.
Samara Morgan
it is the only thing they can do, kay.
and its a sure bet they aren’t gunna tell their constituency about this, but America is becoming a majority/minority nation.
And people like Nate Silver and the punditocracy wont talk about it either, because when the horse race goes away, they are out of jobs.
jwb
I’m guessing one of the ID laws goes all the way to SCOTUS and the court rules in favor of the ID law. Unfortunately, I just don’t see Kennedy or any of the other conservative members having an issue with it.
Mike Goetz
Good for Coakley. This is why you always vote for Democrats, in every race. She would have been better than Scott Brown.
TheMightyTrowel
@Mike Goetz: a five day old dead mackeral with half its intestines eaten by seagulls would have been better than scott brown, unfortunately it would also have campaigned better than Martha Coakley.
If warren gets in the race I’ll have two cousins on her staff. Awesome.
jwb
@Samara Morgan: The horse race won’t go away. When the GOP starts losing elections regularly, it will either redefine itself or another party will rise to take its place; it’s happened before, it will happen again. The one thing you can stake an almost certain bet on is that the monied class will never allow themselves to go long without political influence.
kay
@jwb:
It’s already been to the Supreme Court. Indiana. The justices don’t know anyone personally who doesn’t have a bank account or a driver’s license, apparently, and that was enough.
States get around the poll tax by allowing certain forms of ID that are “free”.
slippy
Because any media smurf who asked them this kind of hostile question would be just plain ol’ mean, and we can’t have that.
Mike Goetz
@TheMightyTrowel:
Tell your cousins I will be voting for her, and telling everyone I know to vote for her. She can win (and will).
patrick II
You are asserting a finality that does not exist in the war for democracy. Ask a student in many states who’s student ID no longer counts. In Wisconsin the state id costs $28, but to get around the poll tax they can be issued for free — its just that the clerks are not allowed to tell you and ask for a the $28 unless you assert your right.
I don’t know how this is going to shake out, but the Indiana case was already given the go ahead by the supreme court so states led by republicans will be creating laws walking the line just like they do with abortion — disenfranchising as many democratic voters as they can with various restrictions on registration (no more same day sign up in some places), and voter id. The supremes will not even here most of the cases — even the most egregious one — before the next election at which time it will be too late.
There is no win, only struggle. I think I heard that in a kung-fu movie once, but not bad advice.
kay
@slippy:
It’s too straightforward. We’d have to pretend it’s a close call for 6 months. Many roundtables, with many conservative pundits conducting thought experiments. Then they’d all pat themselves on the back for having a debate.
Samara Morgan
@jwb: sure. im a fan of red/blue genetics. but the new GOP is going to have to jettison the neo-confederate approach abd become more secular.
Their sojourn in the wilderness will force them to become more appealing to all American humans, not just white christian nativists.
jwb
@kay: If I was running their operation, I would make free IDs available, but have a very long processing time and make it a pain to get (requiring multiple visits to hard-to-get-to sites).
jwb
@Samara Morgan: But that means there will never be an incentive for media to move away from horse race coverage. In any case, the horse race coverage is only a symptom. The media serves the interests of the monied class, and so too does the horse race coverage.
kay
@jwb:
It’s funny, because one of the voter suppression tactics Virginia used was to offer an “option”. Poll tax or special state certificate ‘o voting. The SCOTUS shot that down as a poll tax in disguise.
None of this is new. What’s amazing (and horrifying) to me is that it wasn’t that long ago. We’re not talking about 1893 here. We’re talking about 1963. Why do we have such short memories?
rikyrah
they do NOT believe in little ‘d’ democracy
Litlebritdifrnt
They are trying their hardest to do this in NC and it is obvious who they are targeting from the talking points of the callers on my local RWNJ radio station. “They have to show ID to get their welfare checks so why not to vote”. You don’t need to be a dog to hear the whistling of who “they” are.
Ruckus
We won on abortion as well, decades ago in fact.
How’s that working out?
Syphon
It’s because they haven’t lost. They just haven’t won yet.
Elie
It is good to remind ourselves (though this quote is usually used by the right to justify militarism):
“the Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance”
We will never be able to relax. Never
catclub
@jwb: also require long form birth certificate, with a raised seal, and notarized within 48 hours of application.
dww44
@rikyrah: Well, that, yes, but also they only believe in their own kind voting because only their kind are smart enough, informed enough to vote. Locally, I live in a small city where all the governing is done by Democrats because the city is majority African American. The county is mostly governed by Republicans because that’s where most of the suburbs are, although lots of WASP types have moved to adjoining nearby counties, whose populations are growing while this one is stagnant to shrinking. I characterize it as the “living in gated communities mindset”. Nevertheless, on the heels of a recent bitterly fought mayorial campaign between 2 Dems, one black and one white, and an equally bitter state representative campaign between one old guard African American pol and one new guard African American pol, there seems to be a movement afoot to make local elections bi-partisan.
As one who has long sorta believed in that, in this particular case, the ploy is quite obvious. The GOP is in control of ALL the levers of power at the state level and now they want control of all of the local ones. They’ve already succeeded in weakening my voice and that of others by splitting the city/county between a Republican and a Democrat leaning Congressional District, thereby insuring that the additional district and vote the state now gets in Congress will most assuredly be a Republican one.
Liberty requires constant vigilance and my kudos to Kay for always posting relevant topics with lots of substance. Thanks for what you do, Kay.
artem1s
but yes, if it’s disguised as a candidate bought and paid for by a corporation. May not be a poll tax but it is sure as hell an entrance fee for candidacy to high office. Money is money. Money is not speech.
handsmile
[I posted this at the tail-end of a previous thread, but it seems relevant to this discussion. It may well be that readers/commenters engaged by this issue are already familiar with the citations.]
Nation-wide voter suppression efforts by the GOP may mitigate the demographic trends cited by Cacti (#108) and Samara Morgan (#100/111). Anti-democratic in both senses, these efforts have been enacted into law in a number of states with Republican-majority legislatures.
Rolling Stone’s article “The GOP’s War on Voting” is an alarming primer on this campaign of disenfranchisement: http://www.rollingstone.com/po…..g-20110830
Talking Points Memo also deserves great credit for its tenacious and widely-sourced coverage of this issue.
Samara Morgan (#11): GOP “sojourn in the wilderness”? Where/when will this “sojourn” commence?
Republican electoral strategy now prioritizes state and local elections. Increasing GOP control of state, county, and city governments suggests that their “neo-confederate approach” appeals to an alarming number of “American humans.”
kay
@artem1s:
I actually think that’s a great argument for voting, and other forms of free political speech (action, not donations, for example).
I’ve been using it! Speech NOT money to combat/counteract speech = money. I love that very much.
I’ll let you know if anyone here is buying it :)
Moonbatman
Thank Gaia for Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.
After the swiftboating she had to endure from the film Conviction with “legal inaccuracies or temporal exaggerations.” and her fighting to keep convicted child rapist Gerald Amirault in prison.
Peace Out. The power is yours. Let’s take these sons of bitches out!
Elie
@dww44:
Agreed.
Always informative and timely
kay
@Moonbatman:
Oh, bullshit. That was national insanity, and religious conservatives and media drove it.
It’s happening again, with the outrageous and idiotic sexual predator/reporting acts relating to juveniles right now, and none of you crusaders for justice are saying jack. Are you gonna condemn those laws and prosecutions and prosecutors after 30 years have passed, too? That’s helpful. And timely.
Samara Morgan
@jwb: but there will be an incentive for conservatives to treat black and brown folk better, if there are ever to be more horse races.
RalfW
@kay: In Wisconsin, according to a friend who is a county-level politician, the DMV folks are not allowed to tell ID-seekers that they can get the ID for free if all they need it for is voting.
You have to know that before you get there. It sounded like he said that even if you ask if it’s free, they won’t tell you “yes, it’s free.” You have to actually say, “I want my free ID expressly for voting” or they won’t give it to you.
Racist, poor-hating bastards.
I mean the legislators who wrote this corrupt and immoral law, not the hapless DMV-ers. I sure hope they’re coming up with work-arounds. Though it sounds like in red regions, the DMV-ers are playing along happily in the disenfranchising.
kay
@RalfW:
I’m actually somewhat encouraged. I’ve been screaming about this since 2005, and it now gets taken seriously. Durbin held hearings on it today. I was on a conference call with Sherrod Brown on it a month ago. The Ohio Democratic Party, OFA and the We Are Ohio people are fully engaged. Biden highlighted it at a speech I went to a coupla months ago.
That happened without commercial media attention (or accurate reporting on election process).
I feel as if we’ve reached some tipping point, where real concern is now “mainstream”.