R.I. bill would require new photo ID
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By Eric Tucker Associated Press - Published: January 13, 2009
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island voters would be required to show photo identification before casting a ballot in the next presidential election under legislation being considered by the General Assembly.
Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis, who is proposing the bill as a way to prevent fraud, said the measure would include safeguards to protect voters from being disenfranchised. Critics say photo identification laws, in place in more than two dozen states, keep some poor, older and minority voters from the polls because they don't have the required documents.
"It does not disenfranchise one voter," Mollis said. "If it did, it would not be a law that I would be in favor of."
He said he waited to push the legislation until after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in April that upheld a similar law in Indiana. Rep. Jon Brien, a Woonsocket Democrat, was to introduce the bill Tuesday at the Statehouse.
Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, said there was clear evidence that poor and minority voters were disenfranchised by photo identification laws but no reports of widespread voting fraud in the state — the very problem the bill is intended to address.
"The secretary of state, of all offices, should be promoting measures that make voting easier — not more difficult," he said.
Mollis said the law would be phased in over three years, with polling places in 2010 and 2011 accepting Social Security cards and other forms of non-photo identification.
In 2012, however, voters would be required to present driver's licenses or other valid photo identification. But voters who don't have the required documentation would still be allowed to cast provisional ballots and would also be able to get a photo ID from the state for free.
Mollis said he was confident those safeguards would allow the law to withstand a court challenge.
"In today's world, we need identification to rent a movie, to take out a library book, to board a plane, and I feel the identification requirement should also be there for the all-important right and privilege of casting a vote," he said.
Mollis is also proposing separate legislation that would allow voters to cast ballots one week before a primary, special or general election.
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