EDITORIALS

Listen to the president

The one in Washington, D.C., that is

WHAT’S THIS? Are we still fighting over the new voter ID law in Arkansas? It seems so. At a public hearing only a few days ago, supporters and opponents of the new ID law squared off.

The president of the League of Women Voters in Arkansas, one Stephanie Johnson, said the new law “actually creates barriers for voters,” adding that the law “dissuades individuals from participating in one of our basic rights . . . .”

In a way, President Johnson is right: The new law does dissuade people who aren’t properly registered to vote, or have no business casting a ballot for some other good reason. And dissuaded from voting they well should be in a government of laws and honest elections.

You might think you’ve heard President Johnson’s protests before. They are indeed familiar. A few months back, the Legislature had to override Governor Mike Beebe’s veto of the ID law to get the thing on the books. The governor is still a Democrat in good standing, and his party was against requiring identification at the polls. Why? A good explanation has yet to be produced.

If somebody has to show an ID to cash a check, why not require the same somebody to provide identification in order, as President Johnson said, to participate “in one of our basic rights”? Isn’t voting, and the honesty of elections in Arkansas, important enough to require showing some form of identification?

Most folks, surely the vast majority, won’t mind showing their ID at the polls. But back when this law was still being debated, you’d have thought bear traps were to be hidden around polling places.

This was state Rep. John Walker, D-Excitable, when lawmakers took up the bill back in March: Voter ID has the “direct, overt intent to repress . . . representation, and it is very clear that that is what the bill is all about.”

Over in the other chamber, Senator Joyce Elliott, D-Also Carried Away, called it a civil-rights issue: “What are we fixing here? As much as I know about what we are about to do, I feel compelled to say it is wrong.” Maybe she should know more about what’s at stake here-like the legitimacy of elections in this state-before pronouncing a simple measure to protect the integrity of the ballot “wrong.”

President Johnson of the League of Women Voters in Arkansas isn’t the first to oppose Voter ID, only the latest.

But you might want to listen to a different president on this subject. Or at least his administration.

President Obama and his family visited Africa last week. Flacks in the White House dumped all kind of fact sheets on the press throughout the week. One of them was actually of some interest and relevance. You might be able to find it on the White House website. (It was there as late as Sunday.) This little fact sheet was entitled, in bold-face type: U.S. Support for Strengthening Democratic Institutions, Rule of Law, and Human Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The very first bullet point in that press release from the White House noted a $53 million program that’s (unfortunately) called Yes Youth Can. And yes, the program is funded by you, long-suffering Taxpayer. In advance of Kenya’s 2013 elections, Yes Youth Can, and your money, helped half a million young people obtain national identification cards so they could vote.

Identification is required to vote in Kenya. And the president’s people were helping folks there get their IDs.

Why? Could it be because requiring voters to show identification helps keep elections honest, and therefore keeps the results recognized as legitimate?

Our president doesn’t seem to think requiring identification of voters dissuades them from exercising a basic right. On the contrary, he seems eager to get folks in Kenya their IDs.

Now if only he would talk up voter ID laws in this country, too. And explain why they’re needed to folks in a state and political party we could name.

Editorial, Pages 12 on 07/02/2013

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