{"id":27732,"date":"2020-02-28T10:17:47","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T16:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=27732"},"modified":"2020-02-28T10:17:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T16:17:47","slug":"voter-id-constitutional-amendment-considered-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=27732","title":{"rendered":"Voter ID constitutional amendment considered"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nebraskans would decide if voters must present photo identification under a constitutional amendment discussed Feb. 27 by the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Andrew La Grone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LR292CA, introduced by Sen. Andrew La Grone of Gretna, would require voters to show a photo or digital image of themselves at the polls on Election Day. Acceptable types of identification would be determined by the Legislature under the proposal.<\/p>\n

The amendment, if approved by the Legislature, would appear on the general election ballot in November.<\/p>\n

La Grone said requiring voter identification would increase confidence in election results while still allowing all registered voters to be included in the electoral process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe this can be done without disenfranchising a single voter,\u201d La Grone said.<\/p>\n

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen testified in support of the resolution. He said voter ID is a \u201cmatter of common sense\u201d that has broad support in Nebraska. Evnen said there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Nebraska, but requiring identification would add security to elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you wait for your election systems to become corrupted, you can never recover,\u201d Evnen said.<\/p>\n

Doug Kagan of Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom also testified in support. He said anyone could impersonate a registered voter at a polling site simply by giving that person\u2019s name or address.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne now must present an ID to rent a movie or a vehicle, cash a check or board a plane,\u201d Kagan said.<\/p>\n

Susan Gumm also supported the proposal, saying many states require voter ID.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoter fraud is a very real and ongoing threat to the integrity of the electoral process,\u201d Gumm said. \u201cEvery Nebraskan must be able to trust the election process and the result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Margaret Fisher testified in opposition to LR292CA. She said she personally knows three Nebraskans who do not have a photo ID and could be disenfranchised under the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur voting system works. Leave it alone,\u201d Fisher said.<\/p>\n

Sheri St. Clair, testifying on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Nebraska, opposed the proposal. She said it would place a burden on poll workers to determine if a voter matched their ID photo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if the person\u2019s appearance is different from when they had the photo [taken]? They grew a beard, or shaved a beard, for example,\u201d St. Clair said.<\/p>\n

Jaden Perkins also spoke against LR292CA. He said voter ID proposals are an \u201cattack\u201d on voting rights, tantamount to a poll tax. The proposal would affect non-whites disproportionately, he said, as they are roughly three times more likely than whites to lack photo identification.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot afford a voter ID bill in Nebraska,\u201d Perkins said. \u201cNebraska shouldn\u2019t be participating in destroying democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vickie Young, president of the Omaha branch of the NAACP, also testified against the resolution. She said there is no evidence of voter fraud in Nebraska that would justify \u201coffensive\u201d legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe find the Nebraska Legislature attempting to eviscerate people\u2019s right to vote,\u201d Young said. \u201c[Voter ID] will not solve a problem that does not exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on LR292CA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nebraskans would decide if voters must present photo identification under a constitutional amendment discussed Feb. 27 by the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[256],"class_list":["post-27732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-military-and-veterans-affairs","tag-sen-andrew-la-grone"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/LR292LaGrone2-27-20a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27733,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27732\/revisions\/27733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}