Voter ID bills advance following protest at Capitol

A bill to require voters without proper identification to cast provisional ballots is poised to pass the House of Delegates today after advancing on a 66-28 vote Tuesday following passionate debate and a protest at the state Capitol that drew nearly 300 people.

Similar bills also narrowly passed the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee on Tuesday, sending them to the Senate floor.

Under current law, a voter unable to produce identification may vote after signing an affidavit swearing to be the registered voter he or she purports to be under the threat of a felony voter fraud charge.

Under House Bill 9, introduced by Del. Mark L. Cole, R-Spotsylvania, that person would sign the same affidavit but cast a provisional ballot that would be counted the following day if the local electoral board were able to verify the voter's identity.

Democrats say the proposed change is an attempt to disenfranchise minorities, students, the elderly and poor ahead of the presidential election.

Proponents argue that it is designed to prevent voter fraud by correcting a flaw in existing law. A state Board of Elections official told a House committee last week that if 15 voters showed up at a polling place claiming to be the same person, they could all vote under current law.

At the morning rally, Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones said the legislation is designed to suppress the vote of "those who turned Virginia blue in 2008," when President Barack Obama carried the state on his way to victory.

"There are some nefarious things going on that cause us some grave concern," Jones said. "The fact that there's a brother in the White House is just so unsettling to so many people."

Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, D-3rd, also attended the event and spoke out against the legislation.

Cole and other Republicans stressed that the bill does not prevent anyone from voting and that all provisional ballots would be counted the day after the election, so long as they were deemed valid. Democrats argued that the bill was a solution looking for a problem, pointing to the low number of voter-fraud cases in the state and the nation.

Del. Alfonso H. Lopez, D-Arlington, added that the chances of being struck by lightning were higher than finding a case of voter fraud, adding that the bill "gently suppresses the right to vote in Virginia."

Benjamin Chavis, a civil-rights leader and former national executive director of the NAACP, gave a blistering speech at the morning rally, calling the proposed legislation "arrogant bills introduced by arrogant politicians."

Chavis said the proposed changes "represent the old South" and "lynch democracy."

Del. Jackson H. Miller, R-Manassas, said that he had seen no evidence that minorities or the elderly were less likely to carry identification than anyone else in the state.

"It's almost an insulting concept," Miller said of the claims that the intent was to suppress the minority vote.

The House also advanced Cole's House Bill 1132, which would allow write-in votes in primaries. It would not apply to the March 6 Republican presidential primary, for which only former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Rep. Ron Paul qualified.

Another of Cole's bills, House Bill 63, to close to the media and the general public electoral board meetings called to count provisional ballots and allow write-in votes in primary elections, is also expected to clear the chamber today.

In the Senate panel, the vote was 8-7 on the provisional-ballot issue encompassed by Senate Bill 1 and its companion legislation, Senate Bill 55, sponsored by Sen. Stephen H. Martin, R-Chesterfield, and Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg.

Critics said the measure could disenfranchise otherwise eligible voters like seniors or the poor who forget or do not have identification to present at the polls.

"Many seniors don't have this kind of information," said Sen. Janet D. Howell, D-Fairfax. "It would create a big difficulty for them."

Senators on the GOP-controlled committee also pushed through Senate Bill 62, sponsored by Sen. William M. Stanley Jr., R-Franklin, and Senate Bill 244, sponsored by Obenshain.

The bills would require registered voters to declare party affiliation or independent status when registering to vote, and give state party chairmen the power to decide who may vote in primary elections.

Howell said the legislation would put "unprecedented power in the hands of state party chairmen."

Lynn Gordon of the League of Women Voters said the measure would decrease voter participation and have a "drastic effect" on registered voters and local registrars, who would be responsible for processing the party affiliation designations of voters. She called the process "a huge and costly imposition."

The eight Republicans on the committee voted to report the bill, with seven Democrats opposing the measure.