The AP reports on voter identification in the Northeast. The article gives a taste of the debate:
“I don’t want to jeopardize the
opportunity for someone to decide to go out and vote” because of the
cost of identification, said Rep. Grace Diaz, D-Providence.
On
the other side, fellow Democrat Jared R. Nunes, of Coventry, said a
person whose legitimate vote was counteracted by a fraudulent vote was
the real victim of disenfranchisement.
Opponents
of the bill also noted that elderly people might be discouraged from
casting a ballot because they are not used to carrying identification.
Some of its supporters responded to that claim with incredulity.
“Unless
they are a hobbit living in the hills of Foster, how do they survive
without identification?” said Rep. Michael W. Chippendale, R-Foster,
referring to gnome-like characters in the fiction of late British
novelist J.R.R. Tolkien