Less hurdles for voting

Indiana voters will have one less hurdle to jump the next time they hit the polls for state and federal elections, thanks to a recent ruling by the state court of appeals.

The decision, released Thursday, found the law requiring the presentation of photo identification when voting in person to be in violation of our state constitution. The law was deemed to be in violation of Article 1, Section 23 of the Indiana Constitution, also known as the equal privileges and immunities clause.

Much of the argument for the case rested upon specific circumstances in which the law would prevent otherwise entitled individuals from casting ballots in person, while still allowing absentee voters to do so under the same conditions.

Essentially, under the law, all voters were not treated equally. Because mail-in voting and voting in some nursing homes did not require identification under the law, it was ruled that Indiana’s equal protection guarantee was violated.

A similar case was heard last year by the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the decision of the Seventh Circuit Court that the law was not unconstitutional. The matter of equal protection was interpreted under the United States Constitution, however, and not the Indiana Constitution. The state appellate court disagreed with Gov. Mitch Daniels, who called the ruling “preposterous” by arguing that the Indiana Constitution indeed provides more expansive defense of voting rights than the U.S. Constitution does.

While voter ID laws are intended to prevent voting fraud, critics point out that they may also be used as a handicap to keep lower-income citizens from easily voting.

Daniels predicted that the decision will be reversed in the future.

Here’s hoping that he’s mistaken and that one more roadblock between people and their vote has been removed.