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 Editorials | Issues | January 2008 
Voter ID Court Challenges Expected to Have Big Impact on 2008 Elections
 Keith Perine - Congressional Quarterly
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 |  | It could potentially transform election law in this country.
- Deborah Goldberg |  | |
A pair of closely watched voting rights cases headed to the Supreme Court next week could have a greater effect on the 2008 elections than anything happening in Iowa or New Hampshire.
The high court will hear oral arguments Jan. 9 in two cases challenging the validity of an Indiana law that requires voters to produce photo identification in order to cast ballots.
Court watchers say the high court's opinion will center on the question of what standard should be used in balancing individual voter rights against Indiana's interest in conducting fair elections.
Opponents of the law argue it is an unconstitutional burden on voters. They say the Supreme Court should give the law "strict scrutiny" and reject it because Indiana cannot cite a single instance of voter fraud that the statute would have prevented.
Supporters say that the court should see the law as a reasonable requirement that does not unduly deprive anyone of the right to vote.
A federal district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit both decided the Indiana cases in the state's favor. Voter identification laws in other states also have been challenged in court.
The standard of review that the Supreme Court is expected to outline in the cases, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board and Indiana Democratic Party et al. v. Rokita et al., would then apply in other legal challenges to voter identification requirements across the nation.
"It could potentially transform election law in this country," said Deborah Goldberg of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law, who opposes the Indiana statute.
Both sides have been forced to rely on thin empirical evidence. While Indiana cannot cite any cases of preventable voter fraud, neither can the law's challengers point to specific people who would not be able to vote because of the law, which has not taken effect.
Bradley A. Smith, a Capital University law professor and former Federal Election Commission chairman, said the Supreme Court should take "a wait-and-see attitude" on the issue until a fuller record is developed.
"There may be much less at stake in this case than meets the eye," Smith said.
The Indiana cases will be argued before the court amid a heightened partisan atmosphere regarding voting regulations since the closely contested 2000 presidential election.
Republicans have tended to favor new voter identification laws, which critics say disproportionately affect lower-income - and mostly Democratic - voters. Democrats have pushed for laws such as election- day registration aimed at making it easier for people to vote.
Other controversies are swirling around the November elections as well, such as questions about the reliability of touch-screen voting and allegations that secretaries of state, the officials responsible for regulating elections, are too partisan. |
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