Roll-back RI Voter ID law

...and voted in Jamestown, or was it Westerly?

Reps. Langevin and Cicilline sign on to protest letter

By Will Collette 

Both of Rhode Island’s members of the House of Representatives have signed on to a letter to state Secretary of State Ralph Mollis urging him not to use voter ID to inhibit voters from participating in the 2012 election.

Both Langevin and Cicilline are Democrats, as is Mollis. And the 2011 law was the only time that a state legislature with a Democratic majority has passed such legislation which has been strongly criticized by the national Democratic Party. It is also opposed by RI State Party chair Ed Pacheco. And for what it’s worth, I think it sucks, too.

The right to vote was won with blood

The Voter ID law is intended to eliminate a problem that doesn’t exist – rampant voter fraud by illegal immigrants. There has not been a single successful prosecution in Rhode Island of anyone for committing such fraud.

In the period of 2002-2005, according to the US Justice Department, only five people were convicted for voting more than once (not for illegal registration) and federal prosecutors convicted only 86 people for any sort of improper voting. 

Studies also show that voter ID laws are awkward and expensive to put into practice and cause a lot more harm than good by jamming up polling places and inhibiting people from voting.

We already have embarrassingly low levels of voter turn-out for most elections and voter ID will only make that real problem a lot worse.

The odd thing about Rhode Island’s new Voter ID law is how it came to pass. For one thing, Voter ID laws are a central part of a national Republican strategy to suppress the vote among likely Democratic constituencies and have been largely championed by the GOP .

A report by the Advancement Project, “What’s Wrong With This Picture?”, shows how expensive Voter ID implementation can be. For example, the cost was more than $20 million in North Carolina to educate voters and provide free IDs to those without them. To solve a largely non-existent problem.

Though I remain unalterably opposed to this law, there is one saving grace for southern Rhode Island communities: it may stop the real problem of out-of-state property owners from illegally registering to vote in Rhode Island.

"I get to vote twice because I deserve it"

While groups like the Charlestown Citizens Alliance and RI Statewide Coalition want to give voting rights to people who don’t live here, many non-residents have already taken matters in their own hands. Comparing census data to the number of registered voters, Westerly, Jamestown, Little Compton and Block Island have far more registered voters than they have residents who are 18 and above.

Though Charlestown does not have that same problem – largely due to Town Clerk vigilance – we have a very high rate of voter registration at 86%.

It would certainly be ironic if this new state law – largely the work of very conservative Democrats and Republicans afraid that hordes of "illegals" are cramming the voter rolls – actually nailed some of our millionaire absentee property owners who think their money can buy them the right to vote in two places at once.