Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) a requirement that U.S. citizens obtain photo identification cards before being able to vote has not been shown to ensure ballot integrity and places an undue burden on citizens' legitimate voting rights; (2) the Department of Justice should vigorously enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and challenge any state law that limits a citizen's ability to vote based on discriminatory photo identification requirements; and (3) any effort to impose national photo identification requirements for voting should be rejected.
[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Con. Res. 53 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. CON. RES. 53
Expressing the sense of Congress that any effort to impose photo
identification requirements for voting should be rejected.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 20, 2005
Mr. Obama (for himself, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Reid, Mr. Corzine, Mrs. Clinton,
Mr. Harkin, Mr. Feingold, Mr. Akaka, Mr. Dorgan, Mr. Kennedy, Mr.
Kerry, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. Lautenberg, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Pryor, Mr.
Dayton, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Wyden, and Mr. Salazar) submitted
the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Rules and Administration
_______________________________________________________________________
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of Congress that any effort to impose photo
identification requirements for voting should be rejected.
Whereas the most fundamental right accorded to United States citizens by the
Constitution is the right to vote, and the unimpeded exercise of this
right is essential to the functioning of our democracy;
Whereas historically, certain citizens, especially racial minorities, have been
prevented from voting because of significant barriers such as literacy
tests, poll taxes, and property requirements;
Whereas the long and difficult struggle to remove these and other barriers to
voting resulted in the loss of life but also led to the passage of the
15th, 19th, and 24th Amendments to the Constitution;
Whereas in the face of persistently low voter turnout relative to other
industrialized democracies, exaggerated fears of voter impersonation
have led to calls for more stringent voter identification requirements,
including the requirement of government-issued photo identification
cards as the only approved form of voter identification;
Whereas there has been no substantiated evidence of any significant incidence of
fraud due to voter impersonation, and the more serious attack on ballot
integrity has been the discounting of millions of ballots, including an
estimated 6,000,000 ballots lost in the 2000 Presidential election;
Whereas there is no evidence that photo identification requirements address the
few isolated instances of such fraud;
Whereas 12 percent of voting-age Americans do not have a driver's license, most
of whom are minorities, new United States citizens, the indigent, the
elderly, or the disabled;
Whereas government-issued identification cards can cost as much as $85 and are
often unnecessary for the daily needs of, or inaccessible to, many
urban, rural, elderly, and indigent voters who do not own cars;
Whereas the National Commission on Federal Election Reform reported in 2001 that
a photo identification requirement would ``impose an additional expense
on the exercise of the franchise, a burden that would fall
disproportionately on people who are poorer and urban'';
Whereas an alarming number of States, including most recently the State of
Georgia, have passed proposals requiring voters to produce government-
issued photo identification at the polls;
Whereas the State of Georgia no longer allows affidavits affirming one's
identity to meet the identification requirement for voting, a change
that will likely disproportionately affect minorities, new United States
citizens, the indigent, the elderly, and the disabled;
Whereas 150,000 senior citizens in the State of Georgia do not have a form of
government-issued photo identification;
Whereas residents in the State of Georgia can obtain the newly required voter
identification card in only 56 places in all 159 counties in Georgia
with no such places currently located in Atlanta, Georgia;
Whereas the State of Georgia permits the use of various forms of proof of
identity to obtain government-issued identification that it does not
accept in a similar manner when its citizens attempt to exercise their
constitutionally protected right to vote;
Whereas the State of Georgia will charge United States citizens at least $20 for
voters to purchase 1 of the government-issued photo identification cards
required under the new State law unless such citizens wish to endure the
potential humiliation of swearing to their indigency;
Whereas poll taxes are prohibited in Federal elections by the 24th Amendment to
the Constitution and in State elections by a 1966 Supreme Court case;
Whereas the Secretary of State of Georgia has stated that photo identification
would not have resolved any instances of voter fraud;
Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965 requires that Georgia and other States
with histories of discrimination in elections prove that election laws
and practices do not hinder minorities' ability to exercise the
franchise, including access to the polls, and that such States have such
laws and practices approved by the Department of Justice before
implementation;
Whereas the Department of Justice's approval of the Georgia statute in August of
2005 was a troubling example of a recent trend towards weakening voter
protections and countenancing voter suppression;
Whereas Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath have destroyed or rendered unusable
the official records of many State and local government agencies in
Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, as well as the documents of
thousands of residents in those States, which will significantly
complicate the ability of those residents to obtain photo identification
cards;
Whereas the residents of the Gulf Coast region, in particular, those residents
displaced by Hurricane Katrina, have already suffered immeasurably in
recent weeks and should not be further burdened by losing their right to
vote because they cannot obtain photo identification cards;
Whereas the Carter/Baker Election Reform Commission recommended that States
implement mandatory State-issued photo identification requirements for
voting at the polls, despite the lack of evidence that such
identification will address documented instances of voter fraud; and
Whereas an electoral system with integrity is one that allows all eligible
voters the opportunity to cast their votes, and thus election reform
must further democratic empowerment, not disenfranchisement: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring),
That it is the sense of Congress that--
(1) a requirement that United States citizens obtain photo
identification cards before being able to vote has not been
shown to ensure ballot integrity and places an undue burden on
the legitimate voting rights of such citizens;
(2) the Department of Justice should--
(A) vigorously enforce the Voting Rights Act of
1965; and
(B) challenge any State law that limits a citizen's
ability to vote based on discriminatory photo
identification requirements; and
(3) any effort to impose national photo identification
requirements for voting should be rejected.
Introduced in Senate
Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S10240-10241)
Referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration. (text of measure as introduced: CR S10240)
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