Plaintiffs Fail to Overturn Indiana Photo ID for Voters Law

by Tim Storey

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state of Indiana in a case in which plaintiffs sought to overturn Indiana's requirement that all voters produce a valid photo identification.  In Crawford vs, Marion County Election Board the 6-3 majority consisted of three justices who said that the statute should be upheld, and three who said that this case did not produce enough evidence to overturn the law but that a future challenge was not out of the question.  The three justices in the minority said that the statute should be overturned.

Did the Court uphold the Indiana law?  Well, not exactly.  Given the mixed makeup of the majority opinion, the best we can say is that it was not overturned. 

There are three states (Georgia, Indiana and Michigan) that require a photo ID before a voter is allowed to vote or have their vote counted.  There are five other states that request a photo ID but will accept an alternate ID if the voter does not have one with a photo.  There are about 20 more states that require that voters produce some form of ID (with or without a photo).  For a complete rundown of voter ID requirements, go to this table on NCSL's website. 

More than 20 states considered bills on voter photo ID this year, and almost all of those bills are dead.  It is very unlikely that a state will enact a photo ID law before this year's fall election with the possible exception of Kansas, where a conference committee is considering two different versions of photo ID bills that passed each chamber.  The Supreme Court opinion will certainly lead to enhanced scrutiny of the photo ID requirement in this fall's elections.

In the nearly eight years since the election meltdown in Florida in 2000, perhaps no issue has gotten more attention in the election reform discussion than voter ID.  This seems ironic given that voter ID played almost no role in the Florida controversy, but that's how these things unfold.