Last week a Kansas polling station denied a 97-year-old woman the right to vote in a primary election because she did not have a photo ID on her.
Beth Hiller, resident of a Topeka nursing home, was rebuffed by the polling place because she did not have one of the nine acceptable forms of photo ID, part of Kansas’ rigid regulation of voter ID. Via Think Progress:
To add insult to injury, Hiller was also denied the opportunity to cast a provisional ballot, something she is entitled to do even under the state’s voter ID law, although it is doubtful that it would have made much of a difference if she had cast a provisional vote. Under Kansas’ voter ID law, a voter who casts a provisional ballot because they lack photo ID must still show up at the local election office with identification before their ballot can be counted.
Nope, they couldn’t even deign to pretend to care about Hiller’s constitutionally guaranteed right to vote.
Once again, it looks like voter ID laws are doing more harm than good, though I must say they are certainly fulfilling their purpose of voter suppression. Strange how we insist that people like a 97-year-old woman living in a nursing home (who has no need for a drivers license) present an official ID lest they tarnish and/or demolish the foundation of democracy, and yet people will fight tooth and nail against submitting an ID to buy a gun.
Image via Getty.