Equal Vote Blog has an article reporting on a lawsuit seeking to block enforcement of the state’s Voter ID law on the grounds that it is being inconsistently implemented, suggesting an unconstitutional vagueness. Some of the inconsistencies mentioned:
- One acceptable form of identification is a “current” utility bill, bank statement, or other document. Plaintiffs allege that Ohio law doesn’t define the term “current” and that different counties are applying different rules for ascertaining whether the documents presented are acceptable.
- That same provision also refers to “other government document[s]” that suffice to meet the identification requirement. Plaintiffs allege that county boards of election are applying different standards for determining what this term includes.[...]
- Absentee voters aren’t required to provide documentary ID, but may instead provide their driver’s license number. The complaint notes that there are actually two different numbers on Ohio driver’s licenses [...]
At some point you have to wonder if it would either be better to trash the entire voter-registration rolls and start from scratch, imposing consistent ID/verification requirements between registration and actual voting…or perhaps following the path of Iraq and Afghanistan and not worrying too much about perfect identification, but instead avoiding double-voting by inking voters’ fingers.