Here's a suggestion for Republican lawmakers in the North Dakota House:
The next time they want to tighten up on North Dakota's voter ID rules, they need to secure two things.
First, they need solid evidence of voter fraud in the state.
And second, they need more support from Democrats.
Because if those things are as absent in 2013 as they were this year, then the same fate that befell this year's voter ID bill is likely to happen again.
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It'll be defeated.
Without support from Democrats and/or hard evidence of fraud, voter ID bills get branded -- probably rightly -- as partisan. They're seen as moves to bar likely Democrats from voting and to benefit Republican candidates, not as efforts to protect the integrity of elections.
Of course, this means the 2013 proposal's fate will rest on whether North Dakota elections have an actual fraud problem or just a hypothetical one.
So be it. Because if the system is working smoothly, then it probably shouldn't be changed.
After all, as State Sen. Connie Triplett, D-Grand Forks, said Monday in the Senate debate, such changes carry real-world costs. "We are going to cut out ... more legitimate voters, by far, on the one hand, than we are going to catch fraud on the other hand," Triplett said.
Triplett was talking about House Bill 1447, a proposal that would have barred people from voting unless they could offer proof of where they live.
"State law now allows residents who do not bring any identification to the polls to vote anyway if they sign a sworn statement attesting that they are eligible to vote in the precinct," The Associated Press reported.
The legislation "would have abolished the affidavit option and required voters to bring identification to the polls sufficient to show their identity and residential address. A photo ID that lacked an address, for example, would have to be supplemented by a utility bill or similar paperwork that included residential information."
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The House approved the bill 68-22 on Friday. But notably, 21 of the 22 "Nays" were Democrats, branding HB 1447 as a party-line vote.
One key reason: the absence of any evidence of fraud -- evidence that's likely needed before Democrats will vote against their own interests.
For this rule would affect transient voters such as college students as well as minority and low-income voters who may have fewer forms of ID. And such voters tend to vote Democratic.
The lack of evidence may have proved decisive in the Senate, which killed the bill, 8-38. Republicans hold a supermajority in the Senate, so the margin suggests that a great many Republicans, too, want to see evidence before they fix a system that may not be broken.
It's true that people need IDs for privileges such as driving, boarding a plane and drinking in bars. But voting is a right that transcends all of these.
Furthermore, part of North Dakota's charm is its identity as a state that still depends in important ways on trust. Lawmakers are right to think twice before they tinker with such a treasured and unique part of the state's character.
-- Tom Dennis for the Herald
