Bill Shipp on Voter ID Law

Bill Shipp writes:

The Voter ID law is irrelevant in modern Georgia. It was enacted to solve a non-problem - polling-booth fraud, which is virtually nonexistent in our state. On the other hand, voter fraud involving absentee ballots is rampant. The legislature didn't touch absentee voting except to make absentee ballots easier to obtain with less identification. What's behind such moves? Try this: Republicans vote absentee; Democrats vote in person.

Georgia's Voter ID law has hurt Georgia and made the entire South look bad. It has not enhanced the electoral process. It has aggravated racial tensions and reinforced the perception among many that the new majority running the statehouse are bigots and morons.

Advocates of extending the Voting Rights Act used Georgia's Voter ID law as Exhibit A in their argument that the South remained a racist bastion. The VRA extension, singling out the South for special enforcement, sailed through Congress.

The national media have excoriated Georgia repeatedly for the Voter ID measure. They contend the law is plainly aimed at chilling black voter turnout. They are right.

That's too bad. Georgia was once a beacon of enlightenment on voting rights. In 1945, we led the South in abandoning the poll tax.
A constitutional provision adopted in the same year prohibits passage of new laws that hinder voting.

You might say you don't care what the national newspapers, bloggers and cable-TV pundits say. You should. The Wall Street bankers and others who ultimately decide our economic fate are tuned in. If The New York Times hints broadly that Georgians are a bunch of white racist crackers and the Voter ID law proves it - well, that is not good for business in the Peach State. Most of us outside the state Capitol understand that. We are surprised the state Chamber of Commerce has not informed its hired hands on the inside to cool it. This is 2006. Trying to keep people from voting is not hip. Ku Kluxery is out of style.