Reports from Nashville and Raleigh on the voter ID debate. 

While the voter verification legislation in North Carolina seems poised for passage, all eyes will be on Governor Perdue and whether she will veto the bill despite support in the polls for the requirement.  As this article reveals, if there is a veto, the key will then be whether the bloc of conservative Democrats in the state House join the Republicans in overriding the veto. 

In Tennessee, the Associated Press quotes the Secretary of State as favoring the legislation: “Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett, a Republican, said he believes his state’s proposed photo ID law will increase citizen confidence in the process and combat fraud that could be going undetected.  “I can’t figure out who it would disenfranchise,” Hargett said. “The only people I can think it disenfranchises is those people who might be voting illegally.”  Hargett said the measure currently moving through Tennessee’s legislature — now controlled by Republicans — would accommodate people who don’t have IDs by having them sign oaths of identity, which provide more prominent warning to potential fakers than the standard name-signing.”