A Stitch in Haste

Invoking the canard of a "poll tax," the ACLU is leading a coalition of advocacy groups to block Georgia's new Voter ID law, which I discuss in this chain.

The ACLU has some other grievances, specifically that the law:

--Violates the Fourteenth Amendment because it treats voters unequally.

--Violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act because it results in the denial of voting rights to African-American and Latino voters.

--Violates the Georgia Constitution because it creates an entirely new set of voting qualifications beyond those specified in the State Constitution.

--Violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act because it applies different standards for voters who vote in person compared to those who vote by absentee ballot and disqualifies voters based solely on whether they have a government-issued photo ID, even if they are personally known to election officials, or their signatures match the one on their official voter registration card.

The "poll tax" argument goes like this: the handful of voters who don't already have a valid ID can obtain one, valid for ten years, for $35. Somehow the ACLU thinks that equates to a "poll tax."

Of course it does not. A poll tax, by definition, is a fee that all must pay; the alternative ID surcharge is a fee that some might pay. Add to that the fact that anyone who simply declares, without any substantiation whatsoever, that they are "indigent" is automatically exempt from the ID fee, no questions asked.

That's a mighty loosey-goosey definition of "poll tax."

As for the other arguments:

--Everyone must have a valid government photo ID to vote in person. How is this "treating voters unequally"? How bizarre that the ACLU would actually in favor of "election worker discretion" to "waive people by." I would think that would work against poor voters.

--A law that happens to disproportionately affect people based on race is not, without more, illegal "discrimination." Without going into the requirements for so-called "invidious discrimination," let's just say that some form of obvious anti-black conspiracy would have to be shown — a very high burden in this instance.

--The Georgia Constitution may well afford greater rights than does federal law. But the idea that the Civil Rights Act somehow invalidates any and all differences between in-person voting and absentee balloting is specious at best.

Always remember, it's not about "making every vote count," but rather "making every valid vote count."