March 12, 2008Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), a senior member of the Senate Rules Committee, made the following statement in opposition to the adoption of universal photo ID voting requirements currently under debate in the Rules Committee. Dodd was the coauthor of the landmark Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
“The notion of widespread fraud by individual voters misrepresenting who they are at polling places is a popular myth, which has been thoroughly debunked. For years, various parties – including the US Congress, the esteemed Carter-Baker Commission, the Department of Justice, and comprehensive academic studies have been unable to document widespread in-person voter fraud. Adoption of universal photo ID requirements in response to this myth would effectively suppress the voting rights of eligible voters across the country.