Clarke County Democrat

Voters must have photo ID for June races

Registrars will offer voter photo card to those who need one




A sample of voter photo ID card now required.

A sample of voter photo ID card now required.

Voter registrars in the Clarke County office are in the process of training to make photo ID cards that will be available to voters who request them.

A new law passed in 2011 requires all voters to have some kind of photo identification when they go to vote in the June 3 primaries.

Most voters likely have a photo ID. Types acceptable include a state driver’s license or state non-driver ID, a state or federal ID, passport, a state public or private college ID or one from another state, military ID or employee ID from a federal, state, county or city agency.

To get a voter photo ID you must have proper documentation—which can include some kind of photo ID such as a private employer card. Non-photo IDs must include an individual’s full legal name and date of birth. That can be a birth certificate, marriage record, military record, Medicaid or Medicare document or an official school transcript.

An Alabama resident can now get a non-driver ID photo card from wherever their driver licenses are issued but they must be paid for. Registrars will issue a voters ID photo card for free. It won’t expire like a driver’s license would.

The new program is being administered through the Alabama Secretary of State’s office and cost about $800,000 to implement plus a cost for processing each card by a Georgia company.

In addition to being available at county registrar offices and at the secretary of state’s office in Montgomery, specially-equipped vans will be traveling the state offering the photo ID cards.

It isn’t sure how many people this new law will affect. Most people have some form of photo identification. Those who don’t would likely be the elderly and poor who wouldn’t have a drivers license or some type of photo ID.

Republican legislators pushed this new law through saying it was needed to stop voter fraud. Democrats countered that it wasn’t necessary and puts an undue hardship on certain voters to obtain a photo ID.

In Alabama, polling officials now ask for some kind of identification but it does not have to be a photo ID.


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