SALON

Tuesday, Feb 5, 2013 9:13 PM UTC

Virginia GOP no longer even trying to hide true purpose of voter ID laws

Concealed carry permits, but not utility bills, now accepted at Virginia polling places

By

Topics: Politics, Virginia, Voter Fraud, Voter ID, Republican Party,

Virginia GOP no longer even trying to hide true purpose of voter ID lawsPeople line up to vote in the early morning at City Hall in Alexandria, Va., Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Credit: Gerald Herbert)

The Virginia Legislature has just passed new voter ID laws severely restricting the number of documents voters can use to prove their identity. Because “voter fraud” is not actually a real problem, Virginia’s Republican legislative majority was free to make the rules as hilariously arbitrary as they wanted. And they honestly couldn’t have made their actual intentions — the suppression of undesirable poor/minority votes — more plain.

From the Lynchburg News & Advance (via TPM):

The Senate legislation, and a companion measure — House Bill 1337, sponsored by Del. Mark L. Cole, R-Spotsylvania, which cleared the House of Delegates today on a 63-36 vote — would eliminate the use of a utility bill, pay stub, bank statement, government check and Social Security card as acceptable identification that can be presented at the polls. Voters would still be able to use a voter identification card, concealed handgun permit, driver’s license and student ID card.

That’s right. You can no longer prove your identity with a utility bill or Social Security card — you know, two of the forms of ID you can use to prove your identity when you’re getting a driver’s license — but that concealed handgun permit is A-OK.

That may seem too obviously a method of making sure this bill only affects Democratic-voting Virginians and not conservative white Virginians, but this was actually a compromise from an earlier, even more blatant version of the bill. I can now reveal what Virginia Republicans initially proposed as acceptable forms of ID for voting in the commonwealth:

  • A subscriber copy of Reader’s Digest
  • A ticket stub from a The Band Perry concert
  • A pouch of chaw
  • Ability to recite the Paul Harvey Super Bowl ad
  • A bar of gold
  • A Hokies or Cavaliers football jersey. (NOTE: BASKETBALL JERSEY NOT ACCEPTABLE ID.)
  • A survial seed kit
  • A Confederate flag on which you’ve written your address
  • A gun.

While none of those made the final cut as acceptable ID, Virginia will continue to ensure the sanctity of its elections by making voters in certain precincts stand in line for four hours.

Alex Pareene

Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 28 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
214 points215 points | 7 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
155 points156 points | comment
vote
Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government.
95 points96 points | 28 comments
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
46 points47 points | 8 comments
vote
With the help of Photoshop, artist Yao Lu has made shanshui — traditional ink paintings — of China's landfills
25 points26 points | 1 comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations