Posted by
KWG on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 5:33:22 PM
A national registration system for voting would quickly be repurposed and used for many other kinds of regulatory control. There is no shortage of proposals for national registration and control of citizens. Should the voter ID tempest in a teapot boil over, the tiny specter of voter fraud could thrust a mandatory national ID into the hands of law-abiding citizens.
The Constitution gives Congress power to regulate the elections that select its members and, to a lesser degree, the president. But Congress does not have to use that power to its fullest extent. States recognize their own interests in fair elections, and they should experiment among themselves with ways to secure elections while making sure the vote is available to all qualified people.
I hadn't really thought of this. There has been a push for a national ID recently (witness Rudy), and I'm just as scared as he is. So while I don't think that the Indiana law was necessarily a big step in this direction, as 85% of voters already have photo IDs for drivers' licenses, I'm still wary of the precedent it might set.
On the other hand, one could argue we're already there. What is it that you're asked for when you try to do anything of record? Your social security number. You may think it's innocuous, but it's the best way for the government to easily identify exactly who you are.