[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 247 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 247

Expressing the sense of Congress that a requirement that United States 
 citizens obtain photo identification cards before being able to vote 
   has not been shown to ensure ballot integrity and places an undue 
          burden on the legitimate voting rights of citizens.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 20, 2005

 Mr. Lewis of Georgia (for himself, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Doggett, Mr. Neal 
of Massachusetts, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Filner, Mr. Serrano, Mr. Kucinich, 
  Mr. Hoyer, Mr. McDermott, Mr. Emanuel, Mr. Brown of Ohio, Mr. Gene 
  Green of Texas, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Stark, Mr. Fattah, Mr. Payne, Mr. 
    Hinchey, Mr. Honda, and Ms. Schakowsky) submitted the following 
   concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the 
                               Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of Congress that a requirement that United States 
 citizens obtain photo identification cards before being able to vote 
   has not been shown to ensure ballot integrity and places an undue 
          burden on the legitimate voting rights of citizens.

Whereas the most fundamental right accorded to citizens by the Constitution of 
        the United States is the right to vote, and the unimpeded exercise of 
        this right is essential to the functioning of our democracy;
Whereas historically, certain citizens, especially racial minorities, have been 
        prevented from voting because of significant barriers such as literacy 
        tests, poll taxes, and property requirements;
Whereas lives were lost in the long and difficult struggle to remove these and 
        other barriers to voting, including the passage of the 15th, 19th, and 
        24th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States;
Whereas in the face of persistently low voter turnout relative to other 
        industrialized democracies, exaggerated fears of voter impersonation 
        have led to calls for more stringent voter identification requirements, 
        including the use of government-issued photo identification cards as the 
        only approved form of identification;
Whereas there has been no substantiated evidence of any significant incidence of 
        fraud due to voter impersonation, and the more serious attack on ballot 
        integrity has been the discounting of millions of ballots, including an 
        estimated 6,000,000 ballots in the 2000 Presidential election;
Whereas there is no evidence that photo identification requirements address the 
        few isolated instances of fraud;
Whereas nationwide 12 percent of voting-age Americans do not have a driver's 
        license, most of whom are minorities, new citizens, the indigent, the 
        elderly, or the disabled;
Whereas government-issued identification cards can cost as much as $85 and are 
        often unnecessary for the daily needs of or inaccessible to many urban, 
        rural, elderly, and indigent voters who do not own cars;
Whereas the National Commission on Federal Election Reform reported in 2001 that 
        a photo identification requirement would ``impose an additional expense 
        on the exercise of the franchise, a burden that would fall 
        disproportionately on people who are poorer and urban'';
Whereas an alarming number of States, including most recently the State of 
        Georgia, have passed proposals requiring voters to produce government-
        issued photo identification at the polls;
Whereas the State of Georgia no longer allows affidavits affirming one's 
        identity to meet the identification requirement for voting, a change 
        that will likely disproportionately affect minorities, new United States 
        citizens, the indigent, the elderly, and the disabled;
Whereas 150,000 senior citizens in Georgia do not have a form of government-
        issued photo identification;
Whereas residents in Georgia can obtain the newly required voter identification 
        card in only 56 places in all 159 counties in Georgia, with no places 
        currently in Atlanta;
Whereas Georgia permit various forms of proof of identity to be used to obtain 
        government-issued identification that it does not similarly accept when 
        its citizens attempt to exercise the constitutionally protected right to 
        vote;
Whereas the State of Georgia will charge United States citizens at least $20 to 
        purchase one of the government-issued photo identification cards 
        required by the new State law, unless they wish to endure the potential 
        humiliation of swearing to their indigence;
Whereas poll taxes are prohibited in Federal elections by the 24th Amendment to 
        the Constitution of the United States and in state elections by a 1966 
        United States Supreme Court case;
Whereas the Secretary of State of Georgia has stated that photo identification 
        would not have resolved any instances of voter fraud;
Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965 requires that Georgia and other States 
        with histories of discrimination in elections prove that election laws 
        do not hinder minorities' access to the polls and have such measures 
        approved by the United States Department of Justice before 
        implementation;
Whereas the Department of Justice's approval of the Georgia statute in August 
        2005 was a troubling example of a recent trend towards weakening voter 
        protections and condoning voter suppression;
Whereas the Commission on Federal Election Reform recommended that States should 
        implement mandatory state-issued photo identification for voting at the 
        polls, despite the lack of evidence that such identification will 
        address documented incidents of voter fraud;
Whereas Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath have destroyed or rendered unusable 
        the official records of many state and local government agencies in 
        Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, as well as the documents of 
        thousands of residents in those States, which will significantly 
        complicate the ability of these residents to obtain photo identification 
        cards;
Whereas the residents of the Gulf Coast region, and in particular those 
        residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina, have already suffered 
        immeasurably in recent weeks and should not be further burdened by 
        losing their right to vote because they cannot obtain photo 
        identification cards; and
Whereas an electoral system with integrity is one that allows all eligible 
        voters the opportunity to cast their votes, and thus election reform 
        must further democratic empowerment, not disenfranchisement: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) a requirement that United States citizens obtain photo 
        identification cards before being able to vote has not been 
        shown to ensure ballot integrity and places an undue burden on 
        the legitimate voting rights of citizens;
            (2) the Department of Justice should vigorously enforce the 
        Voting Rights Act of 1965 and challenge any State law that 
        limits a citizen's ability to vote based on discriminatory 
        photo identification requirements; and
            (3) any effort to impose national photo identification 
        requirements for voting should be rejected.
                                 <all>