Did ID Requirement Suppress Straw Poll Turnout?
The Republicans like photo ID to vote requirements. In 2006 this was the main Iowa Legislature holdup to paper trails on touch-screen voting machines. And in the run-up to Ames, the Republican Party of Iowa took shots at the Democrats on ID and election-day voter registration in their media kit: The Republican Party believes all official elections in Iowa should require every voter to show a photo I.D. to vote. Requiring a photo I.D. is a fundamental election reform opposed only by liberals. Now somebody somewhere is trying to spin the low straw poll turnout by blaming… the ID requirement! And MSNBC’s First Read bites: “[D]on’t get carried away on turnout — the Iowa GOP did a much better job of checking for Iowa IDs than in years past.” Undoubtedly, the GOP will continue to deny that ID-to-vote effectively functions as vote suppression.
