During debates about the voter-ID rules this past legislative session, a nursing home in Peabody for people with mental health issues was mentioned frequently. Of the 51 residents at Westview Manor, only nine had IDs. Would they be disenfranchised? Well, last month Assistant Secretary of State Eric Rucker went to Peabody and personally helped Westview’s residents get IDs. Rucker “helped arrange transportation for residents born in Kansas to go to the nearest courthouse and arranged for courthouse officials to come to the facility and take pictures of residents born out of state for their IDs,” the Topeka Capital-Journal reported. This special attention is great for those residents, but what about other nursing homes? Their residents have to arrange for their own transportation to the local Division of Motor Vehicles, where they will have to wait in long lines. How many of those citizens won’t vote, or will have their votes rejected, because of the ID requirement? An Associated Press review found that more than 1,200 temporary ballots during the 2008 general election were tossed out in Indiana and Georgia, two states that require photo IDs to vote. Its conclusion: “The legitimate votes rejected by the laws are far more numerous than are the cases of fraud that advocates of the rules say they are trying to prevent.”
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