COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- The House of Representatives State, Veterans, & Military Affairs Committee continued with its partisan voting record against election integrity on Thursday. 

By a 7-4 vote (seven Democrats, four Republicans) the committee defeated Rep. Kenneth Summers’ HOUSE BILL 09-1115 concerning the definition of identification for election-related purposes. 

Similar bills in the last several sessions of the legislature were also defeated on a party-line vote by this committee preventing a full and thorough review of the merits of these bills on the floor of the House.

On April 28, 2008, the United States Supreme Court upheld a Court of Appeals decision which supported an Indiana law requiring photo identification.  In the Supreme Court ruling Justice Stevens wrote for the majority:

• The electoral system cannot inspire public confidence if no safeguards exist to deter or detect fraud or confirm the identity of voters.
• The burden addressed by the plaintiffs is on persons eligible to vote.  The fact is that most voters already possess a valid driver’s license or some other acceptable form of identification.

People need a photo ID to write a check, use a credit card, board an airplane, and also to participate in many government programs, including Social Security, welfare, medical and other benefits.  Why not for voting?

• The ID requirement does not qualify as a substantial burden of the right to vote or even represent a significant increase over the usual burdens of voting.  But, it may be on a limited number of persons- the elderly, those with economic or physical limitations, or religious reasons (those who, for religious reasons, do not want to be photographed).
• This burden is mitigated since eligible voters without an ID can cast a provisional ballot which will ultimately be counted (or if they vote by mail).
• The state interests identified as justifications of SEA 483 (the Indiana law) are both neutral and sufficiently strong to require us to reject the petitioner’s facial attack on the statute.
• The application of the statute to the vast majority of Indiana voters is amply justified by the valid interest in protecting the integrity and reliability of the electoral process.

“I appreciate support for this bill by Rep. Kent Lambert (El Paso County, HD14), Rep. Carole Murray (Douglas County, HD 45), Rep. Tom Massey (HD60), and Rep. B.J. Nikkel (HD49),” said Bob Balink, El Paso County Clerk and Recorder. 

“In the election area, there is no more important mission than to inspire public confidence in the election process and create safeguards to deter or detect fraud or confirm the identity and eligibility of voters," Balink continued. 

"I concur with Justice Stevens and the United States Supreme Court.  The best interests of all Coloradans would have been served had this bill passed.  There has been a concerted effort by some to change election processes throughout the nation by transferring certain personal responsibilities in the voting process to the government…that should be a concern to us all.”

Information provided by El Paso County Clerk and Recorder's Office.