A measure that would require every voter to show a photo identification at the polls is on its way to the floor of the Virginia House.
The bill, which passed the House Privileges and Elections Committee on a 16-6 vote, would scrap a provision in state voting law that allows a person to sign a statement affirming his identity in lieu of showing ID.
Del. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Woodbridge, said the change would combat fraud at the ballot box. Opponents say it would serve only as a needless hindrance to exercising the right to vote.
“I think you would have to have been asleep for the last year continuously not to know there is voter fraud in the United States,” said Lingamfelter, who sponsored the bill. “I think the last presidential election was a tsunami of voter fraud.”
“How many times do you have to hear stories like the whole Dallas Cowboy defense being registered to vote illegally, before you start to scratch your head and say ‘You know, I think we got a problem,’ ” he added, referring to a 2008 registration fraud scandal in Nevada.
Joe Szakos, executive director of the Virginia Organizing Project, likened Lingamfelter’s proposal to the poll tax, a Jim Crow-era levy put in place to disenfranchise poor and black voters. He dismissed the lawmaker’s notion of widespread voter fraud as overblown.
“It’s another hoop that people have to jump through,” Szakos said. “Our belief is that we should make it as easy as possible for everyone to vote. We don’t want to have people being fraudulent, we don’t want them gaming the system, but when we start asking them to have photo IDs, it’s just one more hoop.”
Lingamfelter’s bill includes a provision that allows voters who forget their ID to cast a provisional ballot and fax a copy of the identification.
The delegate said he expects the measure to reach the house floor early this week. A similar bill in the Senate submitted by Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, is still in committee.
