Combating voter fraud is the motive GOP leaders want the public to believe as they push for the new voter ID bill within the General Assembly.

Controlling House and Senate, the Republican Party has now begun making strides to disenfranchise N.C. citizens by pushing a bill that will bar thousands to vote.

Advocates want to require every voter to present a valid photo identification card with a current address to the polls before they cast their ballot. They want this to replace the system in place that is already proven to work.

Currently, in order to obtain a voter registration card in N.C. you must already prove residency, whether that is by a driver’s license, social security card, or a bill that was paid.  If an aspiring voter already has to do this, why create an extra step to fulfill this constitutionally bound right?

The GOP claim that this will minimize the ability to commit voter fraud by having photo proof of a person; however, they must have forgotten that it is already a felony offense to cast a fraudulent vote.

The true question of the matter is why now? Why push a bill that will cost $20 million or more over the next three years in time when the state is facing a $3.7 billion budget gap.  Democrats have silenced this bill over the past few years, why now is the GOP pushing for it when they didn’t even see fit to include it in their agenda for the First 100 Days?  

In the 2008 election, out of the 4.3 million voters that casted their ballot, about 40 were identified as fraudulent voters according the State Board of Elections. Obviously voter fraud is not the true issue.

“Why is this a top priority when there are 22,342 plus UNC-System students sitting on the edge of their seats waiting to see if their tuition is going to rise, waiting to see if their favorite professor is going to be fired,” SGA Parliamentarian Mitchell Brown said last week at the HBCU Lobbying Day in the General Assembly.

Last week alone Gov. Bev Perdue announced that there will be a 9.5 percent cut to the UNC administration and campuses’ operating budgets.

What does this mean for nearly all the 17 schools within the UNC System — tuition increases and program cuts.

And the GOP wants to put money into a solution that clearly has, yet to become a true problem. Numerous opponents have compared this new bill as a mechanism to discourage voting to the low-income, minorities, elderly, homeless, and college students by adding additional hurdles and expenses to qualify them to vote.  

State NAACP President William Barber has said that this is nothing more than a step back to the poll tax.

In 1965 when the Voting Rights Act was passed, Congress made it law to prohibit any voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure.

Is requiring already registered voters to obtain additional documentation the same thing as creating a voting qualification? In NC between 700,000 to 1 million registered voters are without state-issued photo identification cards. This represents nearly all homeless people, out-of-state college students, elderly who do not drive anymore, as well as newcomers to the state.

At A&T alone there are 1,773 out-of-state students. Most in which have their respective home state identification card. Because they do not have a NC issued card, under this new bill they will not be granted their right to vote.

College students in NC have been characterized as the reason behind the state going blue in 2008, and the GOP had to have notice to that. If the House passes this bill to go to the Senate and it gets approved more than likely Gov. Perdue (D) will veto it. However, by the GOP now controlling the House and Senate they now have the authority to override that veto.

This new bill is nothing more than a disguised way to turn the state back red in the 2012 presidential election. By having a strong hold on voters in NC they now stand to have a chance to gain more power.  The 2008 elected marked history in NC for it was the first time since the election of Jimmy Carter that it turned blue —mainly by the same homeless, elderly, minorities, and college students the GOP are trying to disenfranchise.

• Kelcie McCrae