Listen to the entire program<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/p>\n![\"Ohio\"](\"http:\/\/cmsimg.indystar.com\/apps\/pbcsi.dll\/bilde?Site=BG&Date=99999999&Category=LOCAL19&ArtNo=61023042&Ref=AR&MaxW=640&Border=0\")
A bill introduced into the Ohio legislature earlier this month by Republican Representative Bob Mecklenborg would be the most extreme voter ID law in the country. Mecklenborg introduced the “Ohio Fair and Secure Elections Act” saying it was meant to “secure the integrity of the electoral process.” As the bill is currently written, on election day, Ohio voters will be required to present either a valid drivers’ license from Ohio, an Ohio state ID card, a military ID card, or a U.S. passport. The basis of this law, and other previous efforts around the nation, is the risk of voter fraud. However, instances of voter fraud are so negligible that one state-wide survey cites a rate of 4 fraudulent votes cast out of over 9 million in 2002 and 2004 – a rate of 0.00004%. Since those least likely to have the required forms of ID are the elderly, youth, and minorities, a majority of whom vote Democrat, the bill is being characterized as a blatant political ploy in advance of the 2012 elections. Because of the quirky nature of national elections, the state of Ohio is often a crucial swing state. Whoever wins the vote in Ohio can count on 20 electoral votes to decide a national election. President Obama won Ohio by a 5 point margin in 2008, and defeating Obama in 2012 is, of course, the GOP’s top priority. Ruth Colker, the Heck-Faust Memorial Chair in Constitutional Law at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law says if HB 159 is passed, it would be “the most extreme photo ID law in the country.”<\/p>\n
GUEST: Ruth Colker is the Heck-Faust Memorial Chair in Constitutional Law at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bill introduced into the Ohio legislature earlier this month by Republican Representative Bob Mecklenborg would be the most extreme voter ID law in the country. Mecklenborg introduced the “Ohio Fair and Secure Elections Act” saying it was meant to “secure the integrity of the electoral process.” As the bill is currently written, on election […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-program"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}