WP,pg1: Democrats Predict Voter ID Problems: Laws May Create Election Day Turmoil

[DeepModem Mom]

Democrats Predict Voter ID Problems
Laws May Create Election Day Turmoil
By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 3, 2006; Page A01

....Indiana will have the country's strictest voter identification law in effect on Election Day. The 2005 picture ID law, however, puts it among a dozen states that have tightened requirements lately that voters display some form of identification at the polls. The laws have spawned partisan warring, lawsuits and confusion that election experts predict could influence the outcome of some close elections.

In the Washington area, Virginia requires all voters to show identification, although it does not need to have a picture. Maryland and the District require first-time voters who registered by mail to bring identification, such as a driver's license or utility bill, to the polls.

While the local laws have not been challenged, new voter ID laws nationally are the most widespread, and most bitterly disputed, of several types of voting procedures that states have adopted after the chaotic 2000 presidential election. The procedures include statewide electronic databases of registered voters, which critics allege have in a few states improperly knocked out eligible people. In another procedure, Ohio and Florida -- battleground states that have produced recent contested elections -- have placed tighter reins on groups that work to register new voters.

Such rules, together with updated voting-machine technology, were touted as means to modernize and bolster public confidence in the election system. They have quickly led to new struggles over voting rights. Republicans and their allies assert that the identification requirements and other rules will lessen voting fraud. Democrats and their supporters contend the changes are ploys to suppress voting among poor, elderly, minority and disabled citizens, who are prone to support Democratic candidates....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/02/AR2006110201897.html