"If you don't have a drivers license or other ID with your picture on it, you ought not to vote." - Peter Quinn, Monroe County (Republican) Election Commissioner

This is in response to the federal legislation passed today calling for national election reform, that while standardizing election prcedures nationwide, would require voters to present a drivers license or other photo ID.

The measure, voted against by both Senator Clinton and Senator Schumer (D, R - NY resepctivley) WILL hurt people because the ability to get a proper ID is difficult for the poor. There is a financial cost to get the state issued ID. I expect the homeless won't be able to get ID easily. In addition, there's the "No ID, No Vote" policies of the bill. New York, by having provisional ballots, which allow disputed voters to still cast their vote using provisional ballots. If a voter is later approved, the vote is counted. If the voter is not approved, the vote is discarded.

Senator Clinton entered in her floor statement regarding the bill:

"This provision will repress voter participation among those New Yorkers who are in fact eligible to vote. Moreover, it will disproportionately affect ethnic and racial minorities, recently naturalized American citizens, language minorities, the poor, the homeless, the millions of eligible New York voters who do not have a driver's license, and those individuals who otherwise would have exercised their right to vote without these new provisions.

Many civil rights groups who oppose this legislation have compared these provisions to poll taxes and literacy tests that were used to repress voter participation in the past. I do not believe this is an unfair analogy because I believe this bill may indeed reduce voter participation. When voter participation numbers hover at 50 percent, I believe that we should make every effort to increase voter participation, not reduce it."

To have a voter official say "If you don't have a drivers license or other ID with your picture on it, you ought not to vote" is one of the most disingenuous statements I have ever heard.