Voter I.D. is a fairly simple concept.  People vote.  When they vote, some would like to have the voter provide proof that they are who they claim they are.  Seems reasonable enough given the importance of voting.

So of course it has been vilified by the national media and Democrats have called it, you guessed it, racist.

“In America, we should be trying to include people in the voting process.  This law excludes people.  It reminds us in the bad days of old, all the things we’ve done to exclude people, particularly African Americans at the time from voting,” said Rivers.

Don’t you see?  Requiring an I.D. is basically the same as segregation and maybe even slavery!

In fact, the Democrats believe that requiring people to prove that they are who they are prior to voting, is a “scheme” to win elections:

“This is about putting up obstacles to legal voters being able to exercise the franchise,” says Scot Ross, executive director of One Wisconsin Now, an advocacy group that opposes the changes. “That is the scheme that the Republicans have concocted on this.”

Isn’t it great how Democrats automatically assume that minorities and the poor are automatically Democrat voters?

Luckily, Republicans seem to be prepared to fight on this issue.

Last week, a conference call took place with Chairman of the RNC, Reince Priebus, RNLA Chairman, David Norcross, and Rep. Todd Rokita to discuss this issue.

A read of the transcript of the call paints a picture of an issue that should be a winner for Republicans as it is something that the American people, by and large, support.

According to Norcross:

A June, 2011, Rasmussen Poll had 75% of Americans believing voters should be required to show photo ID. This breaks down into 85% of Republicans , 77% of Independents, and 63% of Democrats.

In fact, says Norcross, the fraud is worse than you may realize:

The Milwaukee police department reported some detailed fraud in 2004 Presidential election in Wisconsin. The Colorado Secretary of State found last year that 5000 non-citizens voted in their Senate race. Which was decided by a close margin, and probably all will remember Minnesota in 2008 when more ineligible voters were identified than the margin between the winning and losing Senate candidates.

Rep. Rokita noted that the Democrat talking points in opposition to Voter I.D. amounted to a hill of beans:

All the ‘sky is falling’ arguments that were made in accusation of what was billed as some kind of draconian, or tyrannical law never came to pass, in fact our voting went up 2 percent as we introduced the photo ID law. We attribute that to the confidence that the law inspired in the voting public.

According to one of the sky is falling reports from South Carolina, “Officials estimate as many as 180,000 voters statewide could be disenfranchised by the law requiring photo IDs to vote,” though who these officials are and how they came to this conclusion is not referenced.

Norcross says that other states indicate this is more than likely hogwash:

And as for people don’t have photo ID, American University Center for Democracy in Election Management found recently that 99% of eligible voters posses the proper ID.

In all, it’s pretty clear that the facts are on our side to finally make some real steps to helping prevent voter fraud.

Full transcript of the call below.

Rep. Todd Rokita: Thank you, I appreciate everyone joining. I just have a quick set of remarks for purposes of just you know my background there just called votes here on the floor of the House so I don’t have too much time; I want to get to your questions. Before I came to Congress this session I was Indiana Secretary Of State for eight years and became the poster child; so to speak, of that first photo ID movement or wave. Our case went all the way to United States Supreme Court as you may know. On April 4^th I believe or 8^th 2008 we got the decision handed down, it wasn’t even five to four. It was six to three and by the time the United States Supreme court decision came down upholding voter ID we had probably three or four elections maybe four or five already in the state of Indiana with great success. All the ‘sky is falling’ arguments that were made in accusation of what was billed as some kind of draconian, or tyrannical law never came to pass, in fact our voting went up 2 percent as we introduced the photo ID law. We attribute that to the confidence that the law inspired in the voting public.

RNLA Chairman David Norcross: I’m David Norcross. I’m the Chairman of the Republican National Lawyers Association. Photo ID and fair elections have been sort of the forefront of our efforts for a good many years. But we have seen recently what I suspect many of you have, a cynical and calculated and coordinated effort by the Democrats to spread lies about the reasons for and effect of voter ID. In fact, most Americans support voter ID. A June, 2011, Rasmussen Poll had 75% of Americans believing voters should be required to show photo ID. This breaks down into 85% of Republicans , 77% of Independents, and 63% of Democrats. Voter fraud is real. This is not anybody’s imagination. The Milwaukee police department reported some detailed fraud in 2004 Presidential election in Wisconsin. The Colorado Secretary of State found last year that 5000 non-citizens voted in their Senate race. Which was decided by a close margin, and probably all will remember Minnesota in 2008 when more ineligible voters were identified than the margin between the winning and losing Senate candidates. In addition to what, and in support of what, the Congressman said, a University of Missouri study analyzing the effect of Indiana’s voter ID law found that it had no effect of voter turnouts in counties with higher concentrations of minorities, poor, elderly, and less educated. This is not a Republican partisan issue in spite of what the DNC chairman, Democrat Senators, and former President Clinton have been saying in recent days. Just last month the Democrat controlled Legislature in Rhode Island passed a voter ID bill. The Governor signed it. It was sponsored by an African-American Democrat Senator. And as for people don’t have photo ID, American University Center for Democracy in Election Management found recently that 99% of eligible voters posses the proper ID. Really the purpose for this call is to make sure that we preserve this initiative, keep it going, and that we protect voter ID and the rights of legitimate voters.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus: Hey… Well thank you David, and obviously Congressman for being on the call. I just wanted to make sure that the folks out there have a chance to talk to the Congressman about the law changes that he has been involved with and keep my comments really short. I mean obviously this was something that was really near and dear to me. I think that we need to make it easy to vote, hard to cheat, and I think that that’s a mantra that we ought to shout from the rooftops all over the country as a Party. I come from a state and Milwaukee that’s famous, if you read chapter 9 in John Hunt’s book they’ll tell you all about it. We’re the only state in the country where you actually have a Milwaukee police department issuing a 70 plus page report concluding that voter fraud and manipulation and confusion and disorganization is a disaster. So I mean this is very real. I want to leave the rest of the time that we do have with the Congressman available and obviously we can, you can all reach Brittney and get to us but getting questions into the Congressman, that time is precious. So thank you everybody and do appreciate the Congressman and David making this call a reality. Thanks.

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