This year’s effort to force voters to show a photo-ID at the polling place has been blunted in the state Senate. 

The court system says a previous voter photo-ID law was unconstitutional.   So this year’s strategy is to send voters a proposal to change the constitution allowing that kind of law to be enacted.   

The proposal has been criticized as being vaguely-worded  and not telling voters what the end result could be–and that’s what bothers Senate  Minority Leader Jolie Justus, who says it looks good at first but then requires a birth certificate to be produced to get the ID card.  She says some people have difficult times getting a birth certificate. 

One is her brother-in-law, a 25-year Marine veteran,  who could not get a driver’s license when he moved to another state because he was born at home, in Kansas, and had no birth certificate.

Others have attacked the proposal as disenfranchising people who have voted for years. The opposition has forced the sponsor of the bill to put it aside     

 

AUDIO: debate part 1 29:32

AUJDIO: debate Pt. 2 20:09