I love Memphis.... Voter ID Law related

[Deleted]

Library Cards at Root of Voter ID Challenge

By Bill Dries
Updated 7:24PM






Print | Front Page | Email this story | Email reporter | Comments (0)





















New Memphis library cards that include a photo have become a challenge to the new state law requiring certain state-issued photo identification in order to vote.

The Memphis library system unveiled the move to the photo library cards last week with Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. saying the new library cards could be used to vote starting with the upcoming Aug. 2 elections. Early voting begins Friday, July 13.

Less than 24 hours later, Tennessee Elections Coordinator Mark Goins contradicted that, saying the new library cards are not valid for voter identification.



Morris

"Some judge somewhere will have to decide who is right on the voter ID," Wharton said Monday, July 9. "We still contend that it can be used. We'll just have to wait and see. I'm sure it will be challenged if someone is turned down."

Meanwhile, Shelby County Election Commissioners announced late Monday that the photo library cards will not be recognized as voter identification when early voting starts Friday.

"If a voter presents a city issued library card photo ID, voting officials have been instructed to first ask if the voter has an acceptable form of photo ID, a state or federally issued photo ID," a written statement from the Election Commission reads. "If the voter does not have an acceptable form of photo ID, the election official will offer the voter an orange provisional ballot to cast."

The first indication of such a challenge came from City Attorney Herman Morris Saturday, July 14, and it went beyond the question of the new library cards to the root of the law.

“The administration of the city of Memphis does not support the new state requirement that challenges voters to produce a photo ID to exercise their constitutionally protected right to vote,” Morris said. “We do, however, wish to provide citizens all legally appropriate and accessible opportunities to meet the requirements of the law, while it exists. … It is regrettable that those charged in carrying out our elections seem set on denying the opportunity to the citizens to use this additional equally legal, more convenient and accessible means of satisfying the new photo ID requirement. … It satisfies the law and in our opinion no one utilizing it for voting purposes should be challenged.”

For the Shelby County Election Commission, the body that will check voter identification starting with the opening of early voting Friday at its Downtown headquarters, the legal opinion that counts comes from Goins.

“The legislature clearly intended that only state or federal photo IDs can be used,” Goins wrote Friday after the new library cards were unveiled, “which prevents us from accepting county or city IDs.”

Beyond Goins, an opinion from the Tennessee Attorney General’s office could either change that conclusion or reinforce it.

Wharton pointed out Monday that Goins' had been contradicted before by the AG's office last year when Goins initially said the ballot question on schools consolidation could not go on a Memphis ballot.

"Why are you automatically assuming he's right?" Wharton asked. "He doesn't have a very good record, frankly."

Wharton also acknowledged that the city did not check in advance with Goins' office before saying it could serve as voter identification.

"We can control this," Wharton said. "That's the plain letter of the law. They read it one way, we read it another way."

Morris weighed in earlier this year with a 33-page legal opinion at Wharton’s request that is the foundation of what by Monday appeared to be the start of a legal challenge of the voter identification law.

“More than one city agency and potentially the city government as a whole would qualify as a state entity under the Tennessee Code Annotated, with the Memphis library system being a primary example,” Morris wrote in the Jan. 18 legal opinion that was released Saturday. “Further, more than one city agency is authorized by law to issue identification.”

[NitaX]

Girl - Goins pissed me off. He was all "I wish they would have contacted us about this in January, not one week before the election." Guess what Whiny McWhinerson - Do your DAYUM job and help them figure something out then.

[KateAggie]

That is so fucking stupid. I have no problem with proof of id, but it needs to be easy to obtain. A library card with photo should be sufficient.

[NitaX]

Jul 10, 2012 10:34:32 GMT -5 KateAggie said:

That is so fucking stupid. I have no problem with proof of id, but it needs to be easy to obtain. A library card with photo should be sufficient.

One would think but nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! Plus, the library card is free. Go figure. You want to make people go wait for frickin' forever at the DMV?

[pixy0stix]

Why wouldn't library cards be sufficient? Because there is no other documentation needed to acquire them?

[Deleted]

Jul 10, 2012 10:38:51 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Why wouldn't library cards be sufficient? Because there is no other documentation needed to acquire them?

I had to provide bills to get my library card

[NitaX]

Jul 10, 2012 10:38:51 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Why wouldn't library cards be sufficient? Because there is no other documentation needed to acquire them?

It's not a state or federal id. *shrugs* However, it is a city issued id. But I guess cities can't do noble things to help their population vote.

[y4m]

I had to show photo ID and proof of address to get my library card, so I'm not sure how it would help people who don't have other ID, at least here. But as a general rule I think a library card should be fine, as long as there's some kind of verification of who you are to get it.

[NitaX]

Jul 10, 2012 10:40:38 GMT -5 @septimus said:

Jul 10, 2012 10:38:51 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Why wouldn't library cards be sufficient? Because there is no other documentation needed to acquire them?

I had to provide bills to get my library card

It's the same here.

From the website:
Identification Requirements

Identification showing current address is required. Acceptable identification includes valid Tennessee Driver’s License or state ID showing current address or any two of the following, one showing current address:

Voter registration card
current utility bill
printed check
check stub
lease, etc.

[KateAggie]

Jul 10, 2012 10:43:52 GMT -5 NitaX said:

Jul 10, 2012 10:40:38 GMT -5 @septimus said:

I had to provide bills to get my library card

It's the same here.

From the website:
Identification Requirements

Identification showing current address is required. Acceptable identification includes valid Tennessee Driver’s License or state ID showing current address or any two of the following, one showing current address:

Voter registration card
current utility bill
printed check
check stub
lease, etc.

This really, really pisses me off. A free ID showing identification is exactly what's needed to make voter ID laws fair. This, and the Missouri R's not requiring ID for the primary, while pushing for it for the general election, are the kind of dick moves that have me seeing red.

(I love that I can use "dick moves" on proboards.)

[NitaX]

Jul 10, 2012 10:42:47 GMT -5 y4m said:

I had to show photo ID and proof of address to get my library card, so I'm not sure how it would help people who don't have other ID, at least here. But as a general rule I think a library card should be fine, as long as there's some kind of verification of who you are to get it.

Unity Horse? LOL

[KateAggie]

[NitaX]

Jul 10, 2012 10:58:40 GMT -5 KateAggie said:

[marie427]

Unless the Memphis Public Library system allows any Joe Schmoe to come in and get a library card without showing anything, a library card with a photo should be more than sufficient for voter ID. But I guess because library cards are free, that would just be too easy for everyone and you can't disenfranchise people that way.

FWIW, I think most major library systems require some sort of photo ID, and it doesn't even have to be a driver's license or something with your address on it - it could be a work ID, a benefits card if it has a photo on it, school ID, etc. Then we ask for a lease, a recent bill, etc. Could someone con us into getting a library card under a fake name? Sure, I guess - but then they'd have to be conning everyone else in the world if all the verification documents are under a fake name too.

[sam20]

Would this help homeless people with the ID laws? In order for me to get a library card I need to have a driver's license and two pieces of mail that verify my address. Still going to be difficult for someone without an address to obtain.

[marie427]

Jul 10, 2012 11:18:15 GMT -5 sam20 said:

Would this help homeless people with the ID laws? In order for me to get a library card I need to have a driver's license and two pieces of mail that verify my address. Still going to be difficult for someone without an address to obtain.

Major city library systems generally accept documents on shelter letterhead confirming that someone resides there. Otherwise, if they don't use a shelter or are somehow registered for city services geared towards the homeless, they can't get a library card and thus no ID.