Midlands Voices: Voter ID proposal is unnecessary, burdensome and expensive

Battershell is a steering committee member of VOICE Omaha. Morfeld is executive director of Nebraskans for Civic Reform.

A state and county fiscal crisis is no time for unnecessary and expensive legislation. Unfortunately, that's exactly what Legislative Bill 239 is.

LB 239 would require government-issued identification in order to vote at the polls on Election Day. At first glance, this sounds logical. However, voter ID is unnecessary, costly and disproportionately impacts seniors, youth, low-income people and citizens with disabilities.

During committee hearings on LB 239, both the bill's introducer, State Sen. Charlie Janssen, and the deputy secretary of state for elections stated that voter impersonation is not a problem in Nebraska and that studies have found it incredibly rare across the country. In fact, one is more likely to be struck by lightning than be a victim of voter impersonation fraud.

In addition to being unnecessary, voter ID requirements are expensive. LB 239 would cost counties hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement statewide. Reprinting of provisional ballots, additional training of poll workers, increased provisional ballots and increased staff for ID verification 10 days after the election all would require time and additional resources.

States with voter ID laws (Indiana and Georgia) have spent millions of dollars educating the public on voter ID requirements. This is an incredibly expensive solution to a problem that has not been shown to exist.

Finally, voter ID has the largest negative impact on our most vulnerable citizens. Seniors, youth, low-income residents and citizens with disabilities are populations proven to be disenfranchised by voter ID laws.

Expired government-issued ID would be rendered invalid for voter identification purposes under LB 239, even if the address and photo were accurate. This would negatively impact the voting rights of seniors and citizens with disabilities in particular, as many no longer keep ID such as driver's licenses current because friends and family help them get from one place to the next. This is why the Nebraska AARP and disabilities rights organizations have come out in opposition to LB 239.

It is important to note that a Nebraska driver's license or state-issued identification card is valid only if it has a current address and is unexpired. Students and low-income citizens are the most highly mobile segments of our population and often do not have valid ID for this reason.

Thus, unless students and low-income citizens pay the $26 fee required to update their Nebraska driver's license every time they move, they would not have valid identification for purposes of voting. For this reason, the UNL student government voted unanimously to oppose LB 239, along with several Nebraska organizations that advocate for low-income citizens.

LB 239 includes a proposed committee amendment that would provide voter registration cards that could be used in lieu of state-issued ID. However, these cards are distributed every two years to citizens in the voter registration database but not to those in the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) database. The DMV estimates that this will exclude nearly 130,000 Nebraskans who move but fail to update their IDs with a current address, thus rendering their identification cards invalid.

If LB 239 is passed by the Legislature, thousands of eligible Nebraska voters would be negatively impacted by a policy that is both unnecessary and costly. Instead of addressing unnecessary laws that would restrict Nebraskans' right to vote, the Legislature should spend its time and taxpayers' resources on ways to make the democratic process more accessible to all citizens.

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