election reform: Voter ID Regulations

According to Campaigns & Elections magazine, the states of Georgia, Indiana, and Arizona have all passed new, restrictive voter ID laws. These laws require all voters to have government-issued photo ID's, and that those without these high-end ID's wouldn't be issued provisional vallots, as required by the '02 HAVA.

There ought to be voting regulations at the federal level. We need to be making it easier for people to vote, not adding new hurdles. Thank god Minnesota has same-day registration, but even that hasn't done much to stop the erosion of turnout, as evidenced by last week's all-time-low numbers.

Anecdotal stories about voter fraud, which is what prompts laws like Georgia's, are blown way out of proportoin. They're the modern verision of Reagan's "Welfare Momma in a Cadillac" tall tale.

Why not move election day to a weekend, or make it a holiday? Why not make state ID's free to all? In Australia, voting is mandatory!