Should be a big fight

... so it probably won't be. This is the subject of my next phase of research, one that I have been working on a bit and which I hope to tie to 19th century concerns with fraud in American elections. Hopefully will be presenting this work at a conference sooner rather than later.

In any event, photo ID is not about illegal immigrants. It’s about people with a clear right to vote, one they have perhaps exercised for many years. The federal government has never suggested that photo ID is desirable. Under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), a bank check, paycheck, or the last four digits of a Social Security number can suffice under various circumstances. The new brand of state laws requires an unexpired driver’s license of passport, military photo ID, or a state-issued non-driver photo ID. The South Carolina law also provides that a voter registration card with a photograph is acceptable, but the state does not actually issue such a card.

While no photo ID requirements existed before Indiana’s, bills were introduced last year to require them in 34 states, according to New York University Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice, which tracks the issue comprehensively. The bills were signed into law in seven states, including South Carolina and Kansas. The others were Alabama, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. (Alabama and Texas also require preclearance under the Voting Rights Act.) Governors vetoed bills in Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, and North Carolina.