The Independent View: Getting Right Voter ID For Older Voters Can be Especially Tough

Nearly Three Dozen States require Voters to show Identification at the Polls. And almost Half of those States want Photo IDs. But there are Millions of Eligible Voters who don't have them. A 2012 Survey estimated that 7% of American Adults lack a Government-Issued Photo ID.

While some Organizations have Sued to Overturn these Laws, a Nonprofit organization called Spread The Vote has taken a different tack. It helps People without IDs get them. And People over 50 years of Age have presented some of their Biggest Challenges. The Group sends Volunteers to Missions, so that People who come for Food and Clothes can get an ID at the same time.

Georgia is one of Seven States: Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin, with particularly Strict Voter ID Requirements, which Demand that Voters show a Government-Issued Photo ID in order to Cast a Ballot in Person. Advocates for Voter ID Laws argue that Showing Identification at the Polls reduces the incidence of Voter Fraud, although Studies have repeatedly shown that In-Person Voter Fraud is extremely Rare, and that it happens more with Absentee Ballots.

Kat Calvin, the Lawyer who founded Spread The Vote, says She learned this the hard way. "We were going around canvassing with ...voter [registration] groups," said Calvin. They'd Knock on Doors or approach People at Bus Stops. But Calvin quickly figured out that the request seemed Invasive and that they were "terrifying" people. "We realized, oh, nobody knows us, they don't trust us. So we realized this will only work if we work with someone that the people we're trying to reach trust."

The Group also has Chapters in Florida, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, all States with Voter ID Laws and Partners with Organizations like Sweetwater Mission that deal with their Clients' most basic human needs. Calvin says "then when we talk to them about voting, they're going to be much more open to it."

Studies show that the People who are most likely to be Prevented from Voting by ID Laws are not only Low Income, but also African-American or another Racial Minority. That has been true of the roughly 600 People that Spread The Vote has worked with.

Another Statistic about the People the Group has Helped: About 40% of them are Older than 50. Calvin said those Voters often present Special Challenges. "If you are elderly and you were born in a rural area [or] born during Jim Crow, you may not have ever gotten a birth certificate."

At Action Ministries in Atlanta, another Spread The Vote Partner, Volunteer Billie Remsa says she has mainly helped Older People. And she says that One of the Obstacles they face is that "most of them don't drive anymore. So taking four buses to go downtown so that they can get their picture ID, these require funds. They don't have them." So in addition to Paying for Documents, the Group drives People to where they need to go to get them.

Another complication that affects mainly Older Women is the Name Changes that come with Marriage and Divorce. Fallon McClure, Head of Spread The Vote in Georgia, explains that the State wants Documentation for every Single Name-Changing Event. "We've had people that, for instance, didn't know where one of the divorces occurred," says McClure. "So how do you get a divorce decree if you don't even know what county to look for it in?"