Supreme Court upholds Indiana's voter ID law

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court cleared the way today for state election officials to require voters to show a government-issued photo identification before casting a ballot. The 6-3 decision upheld Indiana's Republican-sponsored voter ID law, the nation's strictest, against complaints from Democrats that it will deter thousands of poor, disabled and elderly persons from voting. At least 20 states require voters to show some form of identification at the polling place, but courts have been split over whether these requirements are constitutional. Nearly all of these state laws have been sponsored by Republicans who say there is a need to combat "voter fraud." Democrats have opposed them just as strongly, arguing they are thinly veiled efforts to discourage some people from voting. For example, elderly and poor people who do not drive a car are less likely to have an up-to-date state identification card. But the Democrats who sued to block Indiana's law in 2005 did not name a single plaintiff who had been barred from voting because of the law. And that failure doomed the legal challenge. Justice John Paul Stevens, who grew up in Chicago, said state officials had a legitimate interest "in protecting the integrity and reliability of the electoral process." Moreover, he said a judge had found that about 99% of Indiana's voters had a driver's license or other identification that would qualify under the state's law. Stevens acknowledged the Indiana law may well have been "motivated by partisan concerns," but that alone is not enough to make it unconstitutional, he said. The challengers failed to show the voter ID requirement would pose a "severe burden" on many voters, he said. SOURCE OF THIS STORY:LATIMES