No driver's license? No problem. No vote.

This from Greg Borowski's story in the Journal Sentinel, on the Congressional "hearing" on election problems in Wisconsin earlier this week. He's writing about a photo ID requirement for voters:

Backers, including a member of a national election reform commission that recommended such a provision, said it would help restore confidence in the election system, assist poll workers and help guard against some forms of voter fraud. Critics said it would unfairly hit the poor and minorities, with U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) declaring flatly it would "have the effect of disenfranchising over a quarter of a million eligible voters in our state."

The figure was based on a study of people without driver licenses. However, such a statement assumes that none of them would obtain a photo ID and ignores provisions that exempt some elderly from the requirement. Backers of a photo ID requirement noted that plans in Wisconsin, vetoed by Gov. Jim Doyle, would have provided free IDs to those who could not afford one.

So Borowski decides to referee Moore's comments and offer some editorial comment of his own.

He assumes, it appears, that everyone without a driver's license -- all 250,000 of them -- would simply run out and get a photo ID card. If they didn't, they would lose their right to vote.

Of course, he doesn't think they would all get the IDs. Let's say half of them did. Then there would "only" be 125,000 people who would be denied the right to vote. And that, apparently, would be acceptable.

We know who the people are without driver's licenses. This from an item I did in June:

The UW-Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute did the study, which found:

Among black males between ages 18 and 24, 78% lacked a driver's license, the largest percentage of any demographic in the study. Other groups in which a majority lacked a driver's license were black males of any age (55% lack a license); Hispanic women of any age (59%); and black women, Hispanic men and Hispanic women between ages 18 and 24 (all between 57% and 66%).

By contrast, only 17% of white men and white women of voting age in Wisconsin lack a driver's license.

You don't have to be a genius to figure out that the groups most likely to be disenfranchised are those who vote heavily Democratic.

Yes, the bill would let them get a different kind of photo ID from the state. But the fact remains, that it would create one more barrier for those people if they want to vote. Advantage: Republicans.

All of the "voter fraud" talk is a mere smokescreen. The photo ID bill is pure, partisan power politics at work.It's also inaccurate to say that the federal election reform commission has endorsed what has been proposed in Wisconsin for photo IDs. The Carter-baker commission has endorsed something called REAL ID, a very different and very expensive proposition. We'll discuss that another time, but, as one Wisconsin lawmaker said, that is a horse of a different feather.

Meanwhile, in a related matter, the WashPost reports:

Voter ID Law Is Overturned

In a case that some have called a showdown over voting rights, a U.S. appeals court yesterday upheld an injunction barring the state of Georgia from enforcing a law requiring citizens to get government-issued photo identification in order to vote.

The ruling allows thousands of Georgians who do not have government-issued identification, such as driver's licenses and passports, to vote in the Nov. 8 municipal elections without obtaining a special digital identification card, which costs $20 for five years. In prior elections, Georgians could use any one of 17 types of identification that show the person's name and address, including a driver's license, utility bill, bank statement or a paycheck, to gain access to a voting booth.

Last week, when issuing the injunction, U.S. District Judge Harold L. Murphy likened the law to a Jim Crow-era poll tax that required residents, most of them black, to pay back taxes before voting. He said the law appeared to violate the Constitution for that reason. In the 2004 election, about 150,000 Georgians voted without producing government-issued IDs.