04 February 2008

Until April

This will be my last post until the beginning of the new semester in April. As election news continues to dominate the headlines from the United States, lost in much of this coverage is the debate about how Americans vote. In an earlier post I noted that the U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide a case from Indiana concerning whether a rather strict voter ID law violates the U.S. Constitution. Today's New York Times has an interesting op-ed piece from former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker. Their solution: require an ID to vote but make this ID free and require states to actively ensure that voters have an ID. While some won't be satisfied with this solution, it seems to me to be a fair and one that has the potential to solve this very divisive problem.