Photo ID Continues To Draw Discussion
Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz in his office as we sat down to discuss Photo ID (photo by Don Hubbard)
Des Moines, Iowa – Many different debates circulate during the legislative session, and around the country, and Iowa is no different.
Iowa’s newest Secretary of State, Matt Schultz, has been pushing the Photo ID idea since before taking office, making a part of his platform in his campaign.
I asked Schultz why he thinks people are resisting the idea of a Voter or Photo ID. “It’s just partisan politics.”
He explained a process where they asked 5 republican and 5 democrat county auditors. “We said, ‘why don’t you like Photo ID? What are the things you think should be in it?’ We sat down, we resolved their concerns. We made changes so that, really, we could provide the security and not disenfranchise voters.”
“Anybody who’s intellectually honest and looks at our bill will say hey, the Secretary’s made certain changes that we don’t have the problems with students not being able to vote, elderly people being disenfranchised. We made adjustments in our bill so that we could resolve those concerns.”
Shultz remembers presenting Photo ID to a group in Davenport where he says a gentleman asked the question, “Who’d be against it?”
“That’s the real question, Who’d be against this? If you care about fair elections and integrity, what’s your problem with showing an ID? We show it in every other aspect of our lives.” Shultz remarked.
The Second Amendment to the Constitution gives a person the right to keep and bear arms, and it requires background checks and has limiting factors set upon it by government. But Schultz says that, “We’re not even asking for those kinds of burdens with a background check, that would be silly”, Schultz said in regard to those that say having to present an ID in order to vote would violate the Constitutional right to vote. “All we’re asking is that you show an ID. To prove that you are who you say you are on election day.”
Opponents of the bill say that there are no cases of voter fraud in Iowa, and that the bill is unnecessary. So I asked Schultz how you would be able to prove voter fraud cases without an ability to prove the voter was valid in the first place.
“You can’t; you’re making my point”, Schultz stated. He pointed towards a recent sting operation by James O’Keefe, in which they played themselves off as a recently deceased person in New Hampshire to prove polling place fraud does exist. The irony of O’Keefe’s case is that they may well end up in trouble for voter fraud themselves in the process but, none the less, it shows a potential glaring hole in verification for voters.
Schultz says that, “A photo ID would have stopped that. He got caught by one poll worker because they knew the person who died.”
Vouching for your friend or neighbor will also be a possibility under this law, “The spirit of the law. You should be able to vouch for your friend as long as you have a valid photo ID and you both sign the same piece of paper that says you know him or her and they are who they say they are. So there is some accountability.” Schultz pointed out as just one of the ways that is supposed to help keep voters from being disenfranchised.
He said this type of procedure would help prevent incidents like husbands and wives showing up at the polls and one or the other had left their ID at home. “We created that as a solution because these were questions the auditors had as we talked.”
In a non-scientific poll during the day on Monday, we asked Facebook users a very generic, “Would you support having to show some sort of identification in order to vote in an election?” The vote has been as unanimous as we have seen, with 96% of those responding in favor of having to show some sort of ID.
You can view the entire bill on the legislatures website HERE.
