While federal courts have recently overturned voter ID laws in five states on the grounds they discriminate against minorities and the poor, the lead sponsor and primary author of West Virginia's voter ID legislation said he believes that law would stand up in court.
"We took, I think, great care in drafting the language within the perimeters laid out in the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the last 10 to 12 years," said Delegate Patrick Lane, R-Kanawha.
As a practical matter, Lane believes the West Virginia law - which takes effect for the 2018 elections - so broadly defines acceptable types of identification, opponents would be hard-pressed to find someone disenfranchised by it.
"I would be surprised if there was a challenge in West Virginia," he said. "It would be hard for someone not to be able to meet those requirements."
In addition to driver's licenses, the West Virginia law recognizes 17 categories of identification as valid for voter IDs, including hunting and fishing licenses, bank credit cards or debit cards, utility bills, health insurance or Medicaid cards, and voter registration cards, among other types of identification.
By comparison, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently overturned North Carolina's voter ID law because it "targeted African-American voters with almost surgical precision" by restricting approved identification to government-issued photo IDs and passports.
Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Texas officials told a federal judge they will weaken that state's voter ID law and spend at least $2.5 million on voter outreach after the court ruled the Texas law discriminates against minorities and the poor.
As for West Virginia law's comparatively expansive definition of what constitutes identification, Lane said, "There were people on both sides who wanted us to be as accommodating as possible ... it was a little more broad than what I sought to begin with."
Secretary of State Natalie Tennant agreed that the "lenient" definition of what constitutes identification makes the voter ID law more palatable - particularly in conjunction with new laws permitting online voter registration and automatic voter registration at state Division of Motor Vehicles offices.
"This is such a lenient bill that if you get registered to vote, you have a voter ID," she said Wednesday, referring to voter registration cards qualifying as approved identification in the law.
As for the likelihood it will be challenged in court, Tennant said, "I can't predict what's going to happen two years from now, when it's in place."
Reach Phil Kabler at
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