Senator 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.

“Congress has been acutely aware of the risks of disenfranchising millions of otherwise eligible voters who do not have proper forms of photo ID.  The 2002 bipartisan Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which I co-authored, offered a balanced compromise, requiring that only a narrow class of voters (those registering by mail who have not previously voted in a federal election in the state) must present one of a range of different kinds of identification, including a valid photo ID or a utility bill, bank statement, paycheck or government document, before casting their ballot. State or federal laws which strictly require photo IDs for all voters jeopardize Congressional efforts to balance the traditional requirements of ballot access and ballot security; impinge unnecessarily on voters’ fundamental constitutional rights; and create a disparate impact on whole classes of our citizens--including persons with disabilities, the elderly, low-income Americans, and certain minority populations who do not regularly carry them.  I think that would be a terrible mistake, and will continue to oppose forcefully such efforts.”

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