Vernon Ehlers: “several points. First of all, I am surprised that anyone regards this bill as an attempt to prevent people from voting.…”

“several points. First of all, I am surprised that anyone regards this bill as an attempt to prevent people from voting. It is intended to aid them in voting. I am committed, as I said earlier, to allow every citizen the opportunity to vote, and make certain they can be assured that no one else is diluting that vote through illegal action. Having said that, and recognizing that Andrew Young has also endorsed this, I don't understand the arguments of the Democrats on this. When the bill was first introduced and we had our first hearing, all of the complaints from the Democrats and the League of Women Voters was that we are disenfranchising the poor because they could not afford to get a photo ID and they could not afford to prove they were citizens. So I said, fine, we will provide the money so that the poor can get a photo ID, and so that the poor can prove their citizenship. Then we are truly helping them, because not only can they vote, but as Andrew Young said, they can cash their check more readily. Also, if they want to apply for Social Security or Medicare benefits, they have proof of citizenship which speeds up the process tremendously; otherwise they have to go through the effort of proving citizenship at that time. So this bill not only will help with voting, it will help the poor in many other ways because it provides payment for them to properly be able to identify themselves to get government services, to cash checks, et cetera, et cetera.…”