Friday, Secretary of State Beth Chapman announced plans for voter photo identification for the 2014 elections. The law, which passed in 2011, calls for voters to present a photo identification in future elections. Under the law voter can choose between several forms of identification including a valid driver’s license, non-driver photo id, photo employee cards issued by the state of Alabama and the United States, military id’s and passports. Friday, Probate Judge Alan King was reviewing the law’s requirements. King said he hopes voters don’t wait for election day to get identification if they don’t have one. “Certain number of people who haven’t been presenting their driver’s license ID, they need to know about this,” King said.
Chapman said the state will eventually provide free voter id’s at county courthouse or at the Department of Public Safety locations. Chapman’s office will hire a company which will provide a machine to do portable id’s around the state.
King said while supporters of the id law believe it will cut down on voter fraud, the probate judge said there have been a limited number of voter abuse cases.
“Here in Jefferson County we haven’t had a single incident where the district attorney was pursuing a voter fraud case in the 25 years,” King said.
Source: Sec. of State announces new photo id requirements for voting.