The State Board of Elections on Wednesday backed a new policy that eliminates for voting purposes any form of photo identification that expired more than 12 months before Election Day.
Critics believe the new rule will confuse and make it harder for some Virginians to vote.
The board’s 2-1 vote reverses a more lenient policy decision from June that would have accepted at the polls expired but otherwise valid forms of identification permitted under the new voter ID mandate, which took effect July 1.
After Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, the sponsor of the new law, expressed concerns, the board reconsidered. It reopened the public comment period for an additional 21 days to explore whether the agency has legal authority to determine what forms of ID are valid.
Initially, the board wanted to invalidate expired IDs entirely as an acceptable form of voter identification. But it adopted the alternative policy after reviewing public comments and a legal analysis by Attorney General Mark R. Herring, who concluded that some of the language in the policy could create confusion at the polls and lead to unequal treatment of voters or even prevent voters from casting a ballot.
People are also reading…
“I believe (12 months) is the proper grace period for a compromise,” said board Secretary Don Palmer, who drafted the policy proposal. He added that he looked for guidance from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, which allows motorists one year to renew an expired driver’s license.
Palmer said he disagrees with Herring on his view of the constitutionality of the regulation. He added that the policy is “under the umbrella and safety zone” of previous U.S. Supreme Court decisions on voter ID law challenges in other states.
But Palmer agreed to remove some of the language that the attorney general showed concern with, in order to “streamline” the new provision.
The policy now states that a “valid” ID for voter identification is a document “genuinely issued by the agency appearing upon the document” and “the bearer on the document reasonably appears to be the person whose photograph is contained thereon and the document shall be current or have expired within the preceding 12 months.”
The regulation authorizes officers of election at the polls to determine whether the document is officially acceptable “based on its face.”
Herring said in an email after the meeting that “it was appropriate for the board to set aside the language we identified as problematic.” He did not comment further on the compromise passed by the board.
Elections board Chairman Charles E. Judd and Palmer, both Republican appointees, voted for the new policy.
Vice Chairman Kimberly Bowers, the only Democrat on the board, was not present at Wednesday’s meeting but had previously said she would not support an expiration date.
In a letter read before the board, Bowers said “there is absolutely no reason why we should not accept an expired license at the polls” and that the state’s own IDs issued to voters who do not have an acceptable form of identification do not have an expiration date.
By the deadline of the 21-day public comment period, 588 Virginia voters had weighed in on the issue on the state’s Town Hall website.
According to an analysis by the Fair Elections Legal Network, 445 commenters opposed the proposed change and 125 were in favor.
Several voting rights advocates opposed the new proposal at Wednesday’s board meeting.
“If the state’s purpose of passing the (voter ID) law is to prove who you are, an expiration date does not make sense,” said Hope Amezquita with the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.
“The election is coming up, and we are already receiving calls from voters who say how confusing the new law is. It does not make sense; it is not uniform,” she said.
There was no one at the meeting to speak in favor of the new policy.
(804) 649-6537
Twitter: @MSchmidtRTD
mschmidt@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6537 Twitter: @MSchmidtRTD

