Editorial: Identifying a bad bill

Sunday, April 1, 2007 | 7:34 a.m.

A bill that would require Nevada voters to show photo identification at the polls has made it through a state Senate committee by a narrow margin.

The 4-3 vote last week approving Senate Bill 385, sponsored by Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, was divided along party lines, with opposition from all three Democrats on the Legislative Operations and Elections Committee.

Cegavske told committee members she was prompted to introduce the measure after longtime poll workers told her they were suspicious about the identities of many of the new voters who cast ballots in the 2006 election, the Associated Press reported.

But as Sen. Valerie Wiener, D-Las Vegas, noted, it is wrong to assume that every voter possesses a form of photo identification. People who do not drive because of their age, economic situation or a disability have no need for driver's licenses or even passports.

Such laws also don't hold up in court. As noted in a Las Vegas Sun editorial last year, a federal judge in Georgia has twice thrown out that state's attempt to enact a voter ID law, on the grounds that it discriminates against people who do not have driver's licenses, passports or other forms of photo identification.

Voters are issued voter cards when they register, and that is all the identification that poll workers should need to see. Denying people their rights to vote or forcing them to obtain - and pay for - an additional type of identification for which they have no other use is unfair. Voting is a right of every U.S. citizen of legal age, and being able to afford a passport or pass a driver's test is not a requirement.