Real Republicans of genius: Newman falsely claims no governor ever vetoed a voter ID bill

As a constituent in Scott Newman's district, I've learned that a little fact-checking goes a long way with the Hutchinson attorney turned lawmaker.

Take the one today during his press conference about a Voter ID amendment for the state constitution. Newman claimed that no governor anywhere had ever vetoed a Voter ID, and thus we need a constitutional change as a workaround.

A transcript of his remark:

There are a number of states that have voter ID laws already in place. To the best of my knowledge this is the first time a Governor has vetoed a voter ID bill. 

To Mr. Kessler's question about why do we need this, to be real honest I'm not buying into this notion that there isn't any voter fraud out there.  I'm buying into the notion that we don't know and this is certainly gonna be something that will help us find out whether or not it occurs or at least be a deterrent.

Newman claim about Dayton's veto being without precedence is simply false, while his faith-based notion that fraud exists quite silly. In fact, VoterID has been vetoed in the past, and since Newman doesn't seem to have bothered to get the facts about the issue for which he is proposing a constitutional remedy, I have to wonder who or what is actually driving this measure. 

While governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius vetoed a Voter ID bill on May 19, 2008. Think Progress reported at the time:

Today, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) vetoed a bill that would require voters starting in 2010 to show identification at the polls. In her veto message, she said, “[N]o elected official should support enacting new laws discouraging or disenfranchising any American who has been legally voting for years.” Sebelius added that the bill “seeks to solve a problem of voter fraud which does not exist in our state.”

Update: Reader Max Hailperin added this comment:

. . .Sebelius of Kansas is far from unique. You could add Doyle of Wisconsin, Henry of Oklahoma, Rendell of Pennsylvania, Lynch of New Hampshire, and Schweitzer of Montana. Maybe I'm missing someone. The really weird part is that Newman offered this claim unprompted; it wasn't in response to any question. [end update]

What's up with the renewed push to write solutions in search of problems into state law, a nationwide trend? Two days ago, the New York Times suggested a couple of reasons in They Want to Make Voting Harder?:

[eliminating early voting] is the latest element of a well-coordinated effort by Republican state legislators across the country to disenfranchise voters who tend to support Democrats, particularly minorities and young people.

The biggest part of that effort, imposing cumbersome requirements that voters have a government ID, has been painted as a response to voter fraud, an essentially nonexistent problem. . . . .

And the People for the American Way recently issued a report that looks at the group behind that national effort to change Voter ID and state election law.

A clip is coming from The Uptake (and thanks to Mike Mcintee for providing the transcript). Stay tuned. Update: and here it is:

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Comments

[Max Hailperin]

Right, and Sebelius of Kansas is far from unique. You could add Doyle of Wisconsin, Henry of Oklahoma, Rendell of Pennsylvania, Lynch of New Hampshire, and Schweitzer of Montana. Maybe I'm missing someone.

The really weird part is that Newman offered this claim unprompted; it wasn't in response to any question.

[Dale Moerke]

I'm buying into the notion that the representative doesn't really care about facts or history.