Apparently it was too much to hope that Ohio House Republicans would stop grandstanding on “ voter fraud” long enough to allow Ohioans to enjoy at least one election without needless noise from the Statehouse and partisan interest groups. Less than a week after a settlement between Secretary of State Jon Husted and groups that sued over the state’s early-voting schedule, state Rep. Andrew Brenner, R-Powell, promises yet another bill to require anyone who wants to vote in Ohio to produce an identification card with a photo. Such measures in the past would have limited the acceptable ID types to state ID cards, driver’s licenses, U.S. military cards and U.S. passports. They have failed, for good reason: They aren’t necessary, and likely would do more harm than good.
The “fraud” backers warn against is virtually nonexistent. Husted substantiated this in 2013, by ordering Ohio’s county boards of elections to hold public forums at which people could bring forth claims of voter fraud or voter suppression. Only 135 claims of fraud were deemed substantiated, out of 5.63 million votes cast in the 2012 presidential election.
Key to this issue, almost all of those 135 cases involved people trying to vote more than once, not people impersonating someone else. Ohio has no pressing need for protection against voter impersonation.
Full Article: Photo ID is unnecessary | The Columbus Dispatch.