Despite a total lack of evidence that the law was a response to actual voter fraud, the Supreme Court today upheld Indiana's voter-identification law. I wrote about the law when the court heard arguments in this case back in January.
The Times' Ian Urbina reported then on the true effect of the law: it is preventing legitimate voters from casting their ballots without undue burdens.
Justice John Paul Stevens had to reach back through the centuries to find an example of vote fraud that would justify Indiana's onerous regulations:
But, as Justice Stevens noted, there have been flagrant examples of voter fraud in American history. He cited the 1868 New York City elections, in which a local tough who worked for Tammany’s William (Boss) Tweed explained why he liked voters to have whiskers: “When you’ve voted ’em with their whiskers on, you take ’em to a barber and scrape off the chin fringe. Then you vote ’em again with the side lilacs and a mustache. Then to a barber again, off comes the sides and you vote ’em a third time with the mustache. If that ain’t enough and the box can stand a few more ballots, clean off the mustache and vote ’em plain face.”In 2004, Justice Stevens noted in a footnote, the hotly contested gubernatorial election in Washington State produced an investigation that turned up 19 “ghost voters” and at least one confirmed instance of voter fraud. And while Justice Stevens did not mention the elections in the career of Lyndon B. Johnson, biographers of the late president have suggested that he won at least one election in Texas in the 1940’s through ballot box-stuffing — and lost at least one the same way.
You will notice that none of these examples of vote fraud come from Indiana, and only one comes from the last three decades.
I wonder if this sets a precedent for the court: If a state passes a law to prevent some action, will finding any example of that action in the annals of American history be sufficient to justify the law before the Supreme Court?
—Douglas Carlucci
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