With scant (being generous) evidence for concern, Republican
legislatures across the country are passing voter ID bills. This is
nothing more that voter suppression in an effort to tilt the upcoming
election to the Republicans.

Sickening.

"The stated rationale behind the Republican campaign to require voter
ID at the polls is utterly baseless, evidence from a new study
confirms.

Republican legislatures are increasingly imposing strict ID
requirements for voters, ostensibly to deter in-person voter fraud.
But voter fraud in general is rare. And that particular form of voter
fraud is "virtually non-existent," according to the extensive
public-records search conducted by News21, a nonpartisan investigative
news project funded by the Carnegie and Knight foundations.
Researchers filed more than 2,000 public-records requests and reviewed
nearly 5,000 court documents, official records and media reports to
get their information.

They identified 2,068 alleged cases of voter fraud since the year
2000, a period during which there have been more than 600 million
votes cast in presidential elections alone. That, the study noted, is
an "infinitesimal amount." It also showed a total of 10 cases of
in-person voter fraud during that period.

With Republicans in control of so many state houses, 25 laws and two
executive actions to restrict voting have passed since the beginning
of 2011, in 19 states. The most common new voting law, now effective
in nine states, requires voters to show certain government-issued
photo identification cards.

Supporters defended voter id laws when News21 presented its data.
“Whether you have proof of it or not, what in the heavens is wrong
with showing an ID at polls?” said Bill Denny, a Republican state
representative in Mississippi who sponsored his state’s voter ID bill.

So why are Republicans pushing for ID cards so hard? One obvious
answer: voter suppression.

Despite the popular conception that no one can function in modern
society without a valid photo ID, there are an estimated 11 percent of
U.S. citizens -- more than 21 million people -- who don't have a
current, unexpired government-issued ID with a photograph."