The Court handed down the Crawford Indiana voter ID opinion today . No surprise – requiring a voter to present voter ID is constitutional, overall. The Court holds out that there might be situations where individuals are unconstitutionally burdened, but such speculation is beyond the case presented here.
I think this is right, actually. I am also sympathetic to the Court’s unwillingness to go beyond the issue of the proper review of a facial challenge.
I am not sure, frankly, how robust the Indiana law would be if challenged by an Amish farmer with legitimate objections to having his photo taken. Now that Indiana’s discretion in election administration has been honored, will we see state action to cleanse the voter rolls of deadwood? Efforts toward the control of absentee voter fraud? O r is the state only willing to adopt inexpensive reforms?
