Pubdate: Wed, 06 Feb 2002
Source: Birmingham News (AL)
Copyright: 2002 The Birmingham News
Contact:  http://www.al.com/bhamnews/bham.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/45
Author: Kim Chandler, News staff writer

VOTER ID, FELON BILLS PROGRESS IN PANEL

MONTGOMERY The Alabama Legislature inched closer Tuesday to approving 
legislation that would require voter identification at the polls and let 
some felons vote again after they are released from prison.

The Senate Constitution, Campaign Finance, Ethics and Elections Committee 
approved both bills, which have been moving as a package, in an informal 
agreement between Democrats and Republicans.

The House of Representatives has approved both bills in the past but they 
have died in the Senate.

The voter identification bill by Rep. Jim Carns, R-Mountain Brook, would 
require a voter to show one of 15 forms of identification, including many 
without a photograph, or sign an affidavit.

Voting as another person would become a felony, instead of a misdemeanor.

The bill was modeled after Georgia law.

"It is a reasonable middle ground. It has worked well in Georgia," said 
Secretary of State Jim Bennett.

Bennett, who introduced a voter ID bill as a state senator in the 1980s, 
said he hoped lawmakers would finally pass the measure after spending much 
of this four-year term debating it.

"The support for voter ID in the Senate is deeper than I've seen it 
before," he said.

Some Republicans, including Lt. Gov. Steve Windom, have pushed for a 
photo-only form of the bill, saying the Carns' version is too soft.

However, Carns said the U.S. Department of Justice rejected a similarly 
strict law in Louisiana.

"The Justice Department will not allow Alabama or any other state to have 
photo only," Carns said.

Accepted forms of identification would be: an Alabama driver's license, a 
state ID card, a U.S. passport, a government ID with photo, an employee ID 
with photo, a student ID with photo, a hunting or fishing license, a pistol 
permit, a pilot's license, a military ID, a birth certificate, a Social 
Security card, naturalization papers, court records showing an adoption or 
name change, or cards for food stamps, Medicaid or Medicare.

The committee also approved the felon voting bill on a 6-4 vote along party 
lines.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Yvonne Kennedy, D-Mobile, would allow felons 
excluding murderers, rapists, child molesters and traitors to vote after 
completing their sentence, parole and restitution requirements.

Now, felons can vote only after petitioning and winning approval from the 
Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Committee members added an amendment that included drug trafficking with 
the list of excluded offenses. Advocates of the bill objected afterward, 
vowing to try to have it removed.

"It guts the bill," said Kennedy. The small amount of drugs required to 
qualify for a trafficking conviction would prohibit many people from being 
able to vote, she said.

Kennedy said the move could derail the agreement to move the two bills in 
tandem.

Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, warned that anyone who tries to 
unhitch the bills will face a tough fight from him in the Alabama Senate, 
where the bills go next for action.

"That's simply not going to happen," he said.
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