Voter ID bill creates illegal poll tax

To the Editor:

All my life I took for granted that encouraging citizens to vote was a core American value, part of our democratic heritage. Republicans in our House of Representatives have just proven me wrong. Far from encouraging a high voter turnout, they recently passed a bill, mainly along party lines, which would severely limit the ability of people to exercise their voting rights. It mandates the showing of a photo ID to vote in the federal 2008 elections. By 2010 voters would need to show proof of citizenship.

I checked my driver's license. No proof of citizenship. I dug out my birth certificate. No photo. Would baby footprints do? The people who rammed through this bill knew what they were doing. In the guise of preventing fraud, they targeted the elderly, minorities and the urban poor, who often don't have driver's licenses, much less passports, and who by a coincidence often turn out to be democrats.

Added to these inequities, try to imagine standing in line on voting day while the clerk tries to verify the required "proofs."

Forcing people to buy expensive passports in order to vote is, in effect, a poll tax. Enough is enough. Vote democratic.

Grace Siler

Bonners Ferry