Voter ID Splits John Kasich From the Republican Pack

National Journal

By Kimberly Railey

October 2, 2015

Voter ID Splits John Kasich From the Republican Pack

Des­pite some con­ten­tious mo­ments at their two de­bates, the Re­pub­lic­an pres­id­en­tial can­did­ates—from the mod­er­ates to the arch­con­ser­vat­ives—largely align on many is­sues. But on the is­sue of voter ID, an im­port­ant one to many Re­pub­lic­ans, Ohio Gov. John Kasich splits sharply from the rest of the con­tenders for the GOP pres­id­en­tial nom­in­a­tion.

Kasich sup­ports the voter-iden­ti­fic­a­tion law now in place in Ohio, which ac­cepts some pho­to­less doc­u­ment­a­tion at the bal­lot box, such as a util­ity bill, bank state­ment, or copy of a paycheck.

“We haven’t had any prob­lem with voter fraud,” Kasich ad­min­is­tra­tion spokes­man Joe An­drews told Na­tion­al Journ­al. “And we think that the sys­tem we have is work­ing.”

Kasich’s stance re­flects the more mod­er­ate Re­pub­lic­an brand he’s push­ing in the pres­id­en­tial race. While oth­er GOP con­tenders are tack­ing to the right on a host of is­sues, he’s aim­ing to carve out a niche as a cent­rist, elect­able, es­tab­lish­ment-lane can­did­ate.

But Kasich’s views on voter ID put him squarely at odds with every oth­er GOP pres­id­en­tial con­tender on re­cord, as well as at odds with some Re­pub­lic­ans on his home turf. Ohio Re­pub­lic­an le­gis­lat­ors are launch­ing an­oth­er push for a voter-ID bill, which would re­quire voters to present a driver’s li­cense, pass­port, or mil­it­ary ID at the polls.

Kasich’s ad­min­is­tra­tion doesn’t com­ment on pending le­gis­la­tion, An­drews said.

In the past, Kasich hasn’t al­ways stated his po­s­i­tion on the is­sue clearly. In 2011, Kasich avoided dir­ectly an­swer­ing a ques­tion about his stance on voter-ID le­gis­la­tion, which the Ohio le­gis­lature has weighed mul­tiple times. At the time, he said, “I’m al­ways in fa­vor of more people vot­ing, but I also want to make sure that when we count the votes, we don’t have fraud, so I think we can achieve both.”

Here’s where his GOP rivals stand on the is­sue.

Do you sup­port le­gis­la­tion re­quir­ing voters to show some form of iden­ti­fic­a­tion at the polls? Yes.

In his book Im­mig­ra­tion Wars, Bush ex­pressed sup­port for voter-ID laws, ar­guing that they’re a ba­sic com­pon­ent of state sov­er­eignty. The former Flor­ida gov­ernor said that states should make it “simple” for res­id­ents to ob­tain iden­ti­fic­a­tion forms.

If so, should voters have to present an iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ment with a photo on it? Yes.

Bush in his book also said that he sup­ports Ari­zona’s voter-ID law, which re­quired that voters in Ari­zona provide proof of cit­izen­ship when re­gis­ter­ing to vote and show gov­ern­ment-is­sued photo IDs on Elec­tion Day. The Su­preme Court struck down the le­gis­la­tion in 2013.

In his book One Vote, Car­son en­dorses the prac­tice, say­ing, “I hope every­one (minor­it­ies in­cluded) across Amer­ica will take re­spons­ib­il­ity for hav­ing prop­er iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ments, which are very easy to ob­tain as long as one does not wait un­til the last minute to ac­quire them.” Car­son also sup­ports “fees” for the IDs.

If so, should voters have to present an iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ment with a photo on it? Un­clear.

Car­son refers to “gov­ern­ment-is­sued iden­ti­fic­a­tion” in mak­ing his case for voter-ID le­gis­la­tion, but he does not ex­pli­citly say if a photo should be re­quired. His cam­paign did not re­turn a re­quest for com­ment from Na­tion­al Journ­al.

Chris Christie

Do you sup­port le­gis­la­tion re­quir­ing voters to show some form of iden­ti­fic­a­tion at the polls? Un­clear.

Christie does not ap­pear to have taken a stand dir­ectly on the is­sue. But he did de­nounce as “ri­dicu­lous” at­tacks from Hil­lary Clin­ton on GOP can­did­ates’ sup­port for state voter-iden­ti­fic­a­tion and voter-re­gis­tra­tion laws. “She doesn’t know what she’s talk­ing about,” he said. He ad­ded that ex­pand­ing early vot­ing would in­crease the op­por­tun­ity for fraud at the polls.

If so, should voters have to present an iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ment with a photo on it? Un­clear.

Christie does not seem to have spoken pub­licly about the top­ic. His cam­paign did not re­spond to an in­quiry from Na­tion­al Journ­al.

Ted Cruz

Do you sup­port le­gis­la­tion re­quir­ing voters to show some form of iden­ti­fic­a­tion at the polls? Yes.

Cruz has long been a sup­port­er of voter-ID laws as a way to pre­vent voter fraud. In 2013, after the Su­preme Court struck down Ari­zona’s voter-ID law, Cruz filed an amend­ment to the Sen­ate im­mig­ra­tion bill re­quir­ing proof of cit­izen­ship to vote in elec­tions for fed­er­al of­fice.

If so, should voters have to present an iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ment with a photo on it? Yes.

In 2007, as Texas so­li­cit­or gen­er­al, Cruz wrote an amicus brief on be­half of eight states de­fend­ing the In­di­ana voter-ID law, which man­dated a photo ID to vote.

This Au­gust, when the Fifth Cir­cuit Court of Ap­peals de­term­ined that the Texas voter-ID law vi­ol­ated the Vot­ing Rights Act, Cruz called the de­cision “pro­foundly dis­ap­point­ing.” Un­der the law, voters must show a val­id photo ID be­fore vot­ing. In a state­ment at the time, Cruz said, “There is noth­ing ‘dis­crim­in­at­ory’ about a law that pro­tects the le­git­im­ate votes of Amer­ic­an cit­izens and pro­motes the in­teg­rity of our elec­tions—which is pre­cisely what Texas’s com­mon-sense voter-ID law does.”

Carly Fior­ina

Fior­ina does not ap­pear to have spoken out on the is­sue, and her cam­paign did not an­swer an in­quiry from Na­tion­al Journ­al ask­ing about her stance.

Jim Gilmore

Do you sup­port le­gis­la­tion re­quir­ing voters to show some form of iden­ti­fic­a­tion at the polls? Yes.

In 1999, as gov­ernor of Vir­gin­ia, Gilmore cre­ated a pi­lot pro­gram that would have re­quired voters in 10 Vir­gin­ia loc­al­it­ies to show iden­ti­fic­a­tion be­fore vot­ing in the state’s le­gis­lat­ive elec­tions. A Vir­gin­ia Su­preme Court pan­el killed the ex­per­i­ment.

If so, should voters have to present an iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ment with a photo on it? Yes.

Gilmore cam­paign spokes­man Dan Kreske said the former Vir­gin­ia gov­ernor sup­ports such le­gis­la­tion.

Lind­sey Gra­ham

Do you sup­port le­gis­la­tion re­quir­ing voters to show some form of iden­ti­fic­a­tion at the polls? Yes.

At a Sen­ate hear­ing in 2011, Gra­ham lent his sup­port to voter-ID re­quire­ments. He said: “30 states have some form of voter-ID re­quire­ment. So I think this is the fu­ture of the coun­try, something we should em­brace at the fed­er­al level, be­cause elec­tions do mat­ter.”

If so, should voters have to present an iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ment with a photo on it? Yes.

At the same 2011 hear­ing, Gra­ham said South Car­o­lina’s law re­quir­ing photo iden­ti­fic­a­tion to vote “makes em­in­ent sense.” In 2013, he voted in fa­vor of an amend­ment that would man­date a gov­ern­ment-is­sued photo ID for vot­ing in fed­er­al elec­tions.

Mike Hucka­bee

Do you sup­port le­gis­la­tion re­quir­ing voters to show some form of iden­ti­fic­a­tion at the polls? Yes.

On his Fox News show, Hucka­bee dis­missed as “phony non­sense” the idea that voter iden­ti­fic­a­tion “dis­en­fran­chises voters who are old or black.” He staked much of his po­s­i­tion on the need to com­bat voter fraud, say­ing, “A fraud­u­lent vote is a stolen vote.”

If so, should voters have to present an iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ment with a photo on it? Yes.

To prove his point, Hucka­bee on his tele­vi­sion show in­voked an ex­ample of Pres­id­ent Obama us­ing his photo ID at the polls. He said, “If the most re­cog­niz­able per­son in the en­tire United States of Amer­ica has to show his photo ID, why is it too much to ask that of the rest of us?”

At an Amer­ic­ans for Prosper­ity con­fer­ence last year, Hucka­bee lamen­ted the lack of photo iden­ti­fic­a­tion needed to vote. “When I go to the air­port, I have to get in the sur­render po­s­i­tion, people put hands all over me, … but if I want to go vote, I don’t need a thing,” he said in his re­marks.

Bobby Jin­dal

Do you sup­port le­gis­la­tion re­quir­ing voters to show some form of iden­ti­fic­a­tion at the polls? Yes.

Jin­dal has signaled he backs voter-iden­ti­fic­a­tion laws and has down­played con­cerns over them. In June, he said the laws are “not an un­usu­al or over­whelm­ing bur­den.”

If so, should voters have to present an iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ment with a photo on it? Yes.

In 2006, when he was a Louisi­ana con­gress­man, Jin­dal voted in fa­vor of le­gis­la­tion that would have re­quired gov­ern­ment-is­sued iden­ti­fic­a­tion to vote in fed­er­al elec­tions.

George Pa­taki

Pa­taki does not seem to have weighed in on the is­sue yet. His cam­paign did not an­swer a re­quest for com­ment from Na­tion­al Journ­al.

Rand Paul

Do you sup­port le­gis­la­tion re­quir­ing voters to show some form of iden­ti­fic­a­tion at the polls? Yes.

Paul has ap­proached the is­sue with more nu­ance than most oth­er Re­pub­lic­ans, though. He seemed to break with his party in 2014, when he said the GOP’s em­phas­is on voter-ID laws is hurt­ing the party’s stand­ing among Afric­an-Amer­ic­ans.

“Every­body’s gone com­pletely crazy on this voter-ID thing,” Paul told The New York Times. “I think it’s wrong for Re­pub­lic­ans to go too crazy on this is­sue be­cause it’s of­fend­ing people.”

But Paul’s team later signaled that didn’t in­dic­ate his op­pos­i­tion to voter-ID laws. A Paul spokes­man said the Ken­tucky sen­at­or be­lieves the spe­cif­ics of voter-ID laws should be up to the states to de­cide.

If so, should voters have to present an iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ment with a photo on it? Yes.

In 2013, Paul voted “yes” on an amend­ment re­quir­ing gov­ern­ment-is­sued photo ID at the polls. But Paul has again struck a softer tone com­pared with oth­ers in his party.

Last year, he told Fox News’s Sean Han­nity: “To see Eric Hold­er, you’ve got to show your driver’s li­cense to get in the build­ing. So I don’t really ob­ject to hav­ing some rules for how we vote. I show my driver’s li­cense every time I vote in Ken­tucky, and I don’t feel like it is a great bur­den.  …  But I do mean what I said, that Re­pub­lic­ans need to be aware that there is a group of voters that I’m try­ing to court and that we should be try­ing to court who do see it as something dir­ec­ted to­wards them.”

Marco Ru­bio

Do you sup­port le­gis­la­tion re­quir­ing voters to show some form of iden­ti­fic­a­tion at the polls? Yes.

At a cam­paign stop with Mitt Rom­ney in 2012, Ru­bio said people have to show ID for a host of activ­it­ies, in­clud­ing board­ing a plane. “What’s the big deal? What is the big deal?” he said.

If so, should voters have to present an iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ment with a photo on it? Yes.

Ru­bio backed an amend­ment in 2013 that would re­quire a gov­ern­ment-is­sued photo ID to vote in fed­er­al elec­tions.

Rick San­tor­um

Do you sup­port le­gis­la­tion re­quir­ing voters to show some form of iden­ti­fic­a­tion at the polls? Yes.

In 2012, San­tor­um told Think­Pro­gress that he sup­ports voter-ID laws be­cause, as he states it, “the only reas­on you don’t have a voter ID is you want to con­tin­ue to per­pet­rate fraud.”

If so, should voters have to present an iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ment with a photo on it? Yes.

San­tor­um spokes­man Matt Beyn­on said that San­tor­um sup­por­ted the voter-ID meas­ures passed in Pennsylvania, which re­quired voters to show a state-ap­proved photo ID at the polls. A state judge struck down the law in 2014.

Mean­while, San­tor­um has also voiced sup­port for ex­pand­ing the vot­ing rights of felons. In a 2012 pres­id­en­tial de­bate, he at­tacked Mitt Rom­ney for not tak­ing that po­s­i­tion, say­ing, “This is a huge deal in the Afric­an-Amer­ic­an com­munity, be­cause we have very high rates of in­car­cer­a­tion, dis­pro­por­tion­ately high rates, par­tic­u­larly with drug crimes, in the Afric­an-Amer­ic­an com­munity.”

Don­ald Trump

Trump’s cam­paign told Na­tion­al Journ­al that the real-es­tate mogul has yet to take a po­s­i­tion on the is­sue. Cam­paign man­ager Corey Le­wan­dowski said Trump’s stance would be pos­ted in a po­s­i­tion pa­per on­line on voter re­gis­tra­tion, voter-ID laws, and on­line vot­ing, though he de­clined to of­fer a time line bey­ond “way be­fore the end of the year.”

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