By: Marcia Ford
Greetings! I’m Marcia Ford, author of We the Purple: Faith, Politics and the Independent Voter, and I’ll be your guest blogger this week. I know I’m in good company here; not only am I always up for a rousing and boisterous conclave on faith and politics, but also in my book I interviewed and/or quoted at least half the bloggers over in that right-hand column. I feel right at home.
My focus is independent politics, so I’ll leave it to the partisans to duke it out over things like the Wright/Hagee flap. For independent activists, one topic of chatter this week is the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Indiana’s restrictive voter ID law. On the surface, this appears to be a partisan issue: Republicans want voters to to produce a photo ID at the polls to prevent voter fraud; Democrats say the law disenfranchises the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and students, who often don’t have photo ID. The Supreme Court noted that there was no evidence of either voter fraud or disenfranchisement and acknowledged that the dispute was motivated by partisan interests.
For independent activists, the issue is one of reforming the electoral system and making it easier for people to vote, not harder. And it’s an issue of putting a halt to the ploys both parties use to manipulate the vote; photo ID regulations are seen as an effort to suppress the traditionally Democratic vote, but trust me, neither party sports a halo when it comes to tampering with elections. We’ll never stop their machinations completely — though we’re outsiders, we’re not naive — but these poorly veiled attempts at suppressing the vote can’t go unchecked.
Here’s the thing: I do understand the arguments in favor of photo ID; I can hear them in my head right now, and they sound reasonable enough. And I spent a good chunk of my weekend reading comments from people who both support and oppose the court’s decision. But I came away wondering if those people who advocate photo IDs know even one person who would be adversely affected by a law like the one in Indiana. I know plenty of people who would be — and at one time, I was among them. I know how hard it can be to get to a distant DMV office (where Indiana photo IDs can be obtained) during business hours when you don’t have a car and live in a rural area without public transportation.
This decision paves the way for similar legislation in other states. And that’s not good news for those who are already marginalized by politicians who do not understand — or choose to take advantage of — the hardships so many people face. It shouldn’t be surprising that independents take up their cause. We’re also outsiders who are often marginalized by politicians. But we’re doing all we can to prevent them from taking advantage of us — or anyone else.