[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Con. Res. 53 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. CON. RES. 53

   Expressing the sense of Congress that any effort to impose photo 
       identification requirements for voting should be rejected.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 20, 2005

Mr. Obama (for himself, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Reid, Mr. Corzine, Mrs. Clinton, 
   Mr. Harkin, Mr. Feingold, Mr. Akaka, Mr. Dorgan, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. 
   Kerry, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. Lautenberg, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Pryor, Mr. 
 Dayton, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Wyden, and Mr. Salazar) submitted 
    the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the 
                 Committee on Rules and Administration

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
   Expressing the sense of Congress that any effort to impose photo 
       identification requirements for voting should be rejected.

Whereas the most fundamental right accorded to United States citizens by the 
        Constitution 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 the long and difficult struggle to remove these and other barriers to 
        voting resulted in the loss of life but also led to the passage of the 
        15th, 19th, and 24th Amendments to the Constitution;
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 requirement of government-issued photo identification 
        cards as the only approved form of voter 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 lost in the 2000 Presidential election;
Whereas there is no evidence that photo identification requirements address the 
        few isolated instances of such fraud;
Whereas 12 percent of voting-age Americans do not have a driver's license, most 
        of whom are minorities, new United States 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 the State of Georgia do not have a form of 
        government-issued photo identification;
Whereas residents in the State of Georgia can obtain the newly required voter 
        identification card in only 56 places in all 159 counties in Georgia 
        with no such places currently located in Atlanta, Georgia;
Whereas the State of Georgia permits the use of various forms of proof of 
        identity to obtain government-issued identification that it does not 
        accept in a similar manner when its citizens attempt to exercise their 
        constitutionally protected right to vote;
Whereas the State of Georgia will charge United States citizens at least $20 for 
        voters to purchase 1 of the government-issued photo identification cards 
        required under the new State law unless such citizens wish to endure the 
        potential humiliation of swearing to their indigency;
Whereas poll taxes are prohibited in Federal elections by the 24th Amendment to 
        the Constitution and in State elections by a 1966 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 
        and practices do not hinder minorities' ability to exercise the 
        franchise, including access to the polls, and that such States have such 
        laws and practices approved by the Department of Justice before 
        implementation;
Whereas the Department of Justice's approval of the Georgia statute in August of 
        2005 was a troubling example of a recent trend towards weakening voter 
        protections and countenancing voter suppression;
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 those residents to obtain photo identification 
        cards;
Whereas the residents of the Gulf Coast region, 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;
Whereas the Carter/Baker Election Reform Commission recommended that States 
        implement mandatory State-issued photo identification requirements for 
        voting at the polls, despite the lack of evidence that such 
        identification will address documented instances of voter fraud; 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 Senate (the House of Representatives 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 such citizens;
            (2) the Department of Justice should--
                    (A) vigorously enforce the Voting Rights Act of 
                1965; and
                    (B) 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.