I am still amazed at the resistence to the common sense idea of requiring identification to vote. The latest opposition comes to the Indianna law enacted in 2005.

Poor, black and elderly people tend to be less likely than others to have the photo identification required to vote under Indiana law, opponents of the law said Tuesday, citing a survey of prospective voters.

Democrats, too, are less likely to have the right ID, said the foes who filed a legal brief Tuesday in an effort to persuade the Supreme Court the law is unfair and should be overturned. The court will hear arguments in the case early next year, in the middle of the 2008 election campaign.

The state has defended the law as a way to combat voter fraud. Opponents say it unfairly targets poor and minority voters, without any evidence that voter cheating is a problem in Indiana.

The disconnect that I have with this study is that it simply focuses on those who don’t have an id. Not having one is not the same as not being able to get one. There is no indication (in the quoted article, I haven’t tracked down the study) of the reason those who are without id don’t have one.

The post I made last year (linked above) generated the second highest number of comments of anything I’ve written here. Those who oppose the idea make the claim that this requirement is “a poll tax”, although most laws make the provision for free id cards for those who can not pay for one.

But what caught my attention in this instance was this:

Politics was also found to be a factor. About 41 percent of those who have valid identification said they were Republican, while 32 percent were Democrats. Of those without ID, 34 percent were Republican and 38 percent were Democrats.

Let me be clear here. I think that everyone should be encouraged to vote. Far to few of my fellow citizens take advantage of our greatest input into the representitives we choose to be our government. But insuring that those who vote are who they say they are, and are legally eligible to vote is not an undue burden. It’s just good sense.