A proposal to require Tennessee voters to present a photo ID at their polling place ran into a speed bump at the state capitol Wednesday. Tennessee’s attorney general issued an opinion saying that the Voter ID bill would likely be found unconstitutional.
Representative Craig Fitzhugh, the House Democratic Leader, was one of the lawmakers who requested the Attorney General’s opinion. “I mean it’s a violation of both the U.S. Constitution and the Tennessee Constitution.”
It would be a violation – says the attorney general – because requiring a voter to pay for an ID would amount to a “poll tax,” outlawed under the twenty-fourth amendment to the Constitution.
Fitzhugh says if the state pays for IDs for all those who don’t have one, the Voter ID bill would create a new cost to the state. So the bill would probably have to go through the committee process all over again.
Full Article: Attorney General’s Opinion Flags Voter ID Bill – Nashville Public Radio.