Indiana Gets Photo ID

Indiana's photo ID law upheld by the US Supreme Court, in time for Indiana's May 6th primary. Good.

One point from the lead Supreme on this:

Stevens acknowledged that supporters of the law hadn't proven any instance of voter impersonation at the polls in Indiana. He said, however, that ``flagrant examples of such fraud have been documented throughout this nation's history,'' including William ``Boss'' Tweed's manipulation of the 1868 New York City elections.

Stevens also pointed to absentee-ballot fraud in the 2003 Democratic primary in the mayoral race in East Chicago, Indiana.

NY Times goes to their base for reaction:

Some Democrats have complained that those who succeeded in passing the law and fought on its behalf were citing problems that did not exist, because prosecutions for impersonating a registered voter are exceedingly rare, or non-existent. The real motivation of those behind the law was to hamper Democrats, those foes of the law have argued.

Well, yeah. How many cases of vote fraud occur in rowdy Republican districts, hmm?

UPDATE: Justice Scalia:

Scalia, favoring a broader ruling in defense of voter ID laws, said, "The universally applicable requirements of Indiana's voter-identification law are eminently reasonable. The burden of acquiring, possessing and showing a free photo identification is simply not severe, because it does not 'even represent a significant increase over the usual burdens of voting.'" [snip]

Indiana provides IDs free of charge to the poor and allows voters who lack photo ID to cast a provisional ballot and then show up within 10 days at their county courthouse to produce identification or otherwise attest to their identity.

Stevens said these provisions also help reduce the burden on people who lack driver licenses.

Florida is enforcing their laws as well. The League of Liberal Women Voters is upset:

But just over a week ago, the organization’s leaders said they would have to stop their current drive because the state’s top election official planned to enforce strict deadlines and fines of up to $1,000 for groups that lose voter registration forms or turn them in late.

Of course turning forms in late or incomplete is a favorite tactic of the liberal "community organizer" ACORN:

Two recent federal rulings have gone in the state’s favor.

On March 25, a Federal District Court in Miami rejected a challenge to the provision on corrections and omissions.

An oversight can be as simple as failing to check what many Florida residents call the “crazy box.” It asks people to affirm: “I have not been adjudicated mentally incapacitated with respect to voting or, if I have, my competency has been restored.”

So far, about 3 percent of voter registrations collected by the Florida chapter of Acorn, a national organizing group, have lacked the required checkmarks.

More on ACORN, The Joplin Globe:

ACORN has been criticized in the past for registration card problems, including in 2006 when St. Louis election officials claimed workers turned in up to 1,500 potentially bogus voter registration cards.

Earlier this month, eight people who gathered registrations for ACORN pleaded guilty to federal election fraud for submitting false registration cards for the 2006 election. Similar problems arose in Kansas City in 2006.

Vote fraud can make the crucial margin of difference in close elections. Like Florida and Missouri. Hopefully not Indiana. At least not in the fall.