Voter ID Amendment Proposal

It occurred to me that many voters, particularly those with conservative leanings, who might be inclined to vote in favor of the amendment requiring voter ID, are probably unfamiliar with the investigation on voter fraud in the U.S, which I just came across, conducted by the Justice Department during the Bush administration which covered the years 2002 through 2007. In that 5 year period the investigation found 120 cases of voter fraud in the U.S., which resulted in 86 convictions. In part, a comment on the report observed:

 "Let's dispense with the polite fiction that the Republican's obsession with voter fraud is about the security of the vote. It's pure voter suppression. An exhaustive search by the Department of Justice unearthed no evidence of large scale voter fraud. A 5-year probe came up with 86 cases of voter fraud in the entire country, none of which were of the type that could have been prevented by voter ID. The system isn't broken."

     In another investigation, Texas found over a period of ten years and 30,000,000 votes cast, 62 cases of voter fraud.

     A couple of articles involving the Bush administration investigation, particularly the rational analysis set forth in the article from New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, strongly suggest that a vote in favor of such an amendment serves no valid objective other than voter suppression. Also of interest on this matter is an article from the Hillman Foundation.