West Virginians would be required to show photo ID at their polling places before they can vote, under a Republican bill advancing through the House of Delegates.
The voter ID bill passed the House Judiciary Committee after nearly five hours of discussion and debate Wednesday on a strict party-line vote, with every Republican voting in favor and every Democrat opposed.
The bill (HB 4013) would require voters to show some form of government-issued photo ID to vote. Acceptable IDs would include a driver's license or state ID card, a passport, a state or government employee ID card, a student ID, a military ID or a state concealed-weapons permit.
Thirty-three states have voter ID laws in effect. Three others - Arkansas, Missouri and Pennsylvania - have passed voter ID laws, but they are on hold, pending court challenges.
Voter ID laws generally fall into two categories, strict - where the voter must show ID or take some sort of action after election day to have their vote counted - and non-strict - which grants greater allowances for not showing an ID.
The proposed West Virginia law would be non-strict. Voters without IDs could vote on provisional ballots and potentially have their votes counted without taking any additional action.
If a voter does not have ID, they can sign an affidavit at the polling place and vote on a provisional ballot. The election authority will later check the signed affidavit against the signature on file with the county clerk, to determine if the ballot should be counted.
This signature comparison is the method currently used to verify voter identity in West Virginia.
Jan Pest, the Marshall County clerk, told the committee that making voters use a provisional ballot (which currently happens when voters go to the wrong precinct) has a chilling effect.
She said that when voters are given a provisional ballot, they often think that poll workers will be inspecting who they voted for.
"I really do think it will turn people, that they will personally choose not to vote," said Pest, a Democrat. "I see the reaction of the people; there's fear in their eyes, it's like deer in the headlights when they hear they have to cast a provisional ballot."
House Republicans argued that the ID requirement is necessary, to avoid voter fraud.
"The idea is that we be proactive and prevent something from happening," said Delegate Patrick Lane, R-Kanawha, and the bill's lead sponsor.
Lane argued against concerns that people without IDs would be unable to vote, saying that 96 percent of adults in West Virginia have some sort of photo ID, while only 86 percent are registered to vote.
But Democrats, noting that cases of documented, in-person voter fraud are extraordinarily rare, said the bill is about suppressing voter turnout.
Minorities and the elderly, they said, are less likely to have photo IDs.
"We're trying to hold voter turnout down," Delegate Justin Marcum, D-Mingo, said. "It's already bad enough; voters don't go to the polls as it is, and now we're going to hinder voters even further. This bill's absurd."
West Virginia was last in the nation in voter turnout in 2012, the only state where less than half of eligible voters voted.
And while West Virginia has a somewhat sordid history of election fraud, there is no evidence to suggest that in-person voter fraud is a widespread problem in West Virginia, or anywhere else in the country.
Dave Nichols, of the Secretary of State's Office, told the committee that his office has not found any substantiated cases of in-person voter fraud. Nichols noted that there have been problems with fraud related to absentee ballots but that those would not be addressed by the voter ID bill.
The Brennan Center of Justice, a branch of the New York University Law School, has conducted an ongoing investigation of claims of voter fraud.
"Voter impersonation is nearly non-existent, and much of the problems associated with alleged fraud in elections relates to unintentional mistakes by voters or election administrators," the Brennan Center concluded.
The committee made several amendments, intended to make it easier for seniors without IDs to vote, including allowing the elderly to use Social Security and Medicare cards as IDs, even though they do not have a photo.
The committee defeated an amendment that would have increased voter registration in West Virginia. Under the amendment, when a person goes to the Division of Motor Vehicles, he or she would be asked if they're a voter or would like to be. If they're not, and they're eligible to vote, they would be automatically registered to vote unless they specifically opt out.
Last year, Oregon became the first state in the nation to pass and implement automatic voter registration.
The West Virginia proposal failed in the Judiciary Committee by a vote of 13-11, with solely Republicans opposed. Delegates J.B. McCuskey, R-Kanawha, and Frank Deem, R-Wood, joined every Democrat in support of automatic voter registration.
Delegate Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, who sponsored the automatic registration amendment, called its defeat telling as to the true aim of the bill.
"We had an amendment that would put more people at the polls on Election Day, and it was refused," Fluharty said, "because the intent is not to drive out voter fraud, the intent is to drive out voters."
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.