Is there nothing a republican won’t do to steal an election? Barring Americans from voting is about as low as one can go. And yet, “bringing them democracy” is republican validation for the Iraqi war.

Take for example the Indiana voter identification law which is headed to the Supreme Court next week:

The mainly Republican backers of the law, including the Bush administration, say state-produced photo identification is a prudent measure to cut down on vote fraud - even though Indiana has never had a prosecution of the kind of fraud the law is supposed to prevent.

The opponents, mainly Democrats, view voter ID a modern-day poll tax that disproportionately affect poor, minority and elderly voters - who tend to back Democrats. Yet, a federal judge found that opponents of the law were unable to produce evidence of a single Indiana resident who had been barred from voting because of the law.

As the article states, “Indiana has never had a prosecution of the kind of fraud the law is supposed to prevent”, then why would opponents need to produce any evidence that someone had been barred? But if this judge did want proof of voter disenfranchisement, maybe he should try reading the following:

Even without an ID, indigent people can cast provisional ballots, then show up within 10 days at county offices and sign a form attesting to their vote.

But the Marion County Election Board, which includes Indianapolis, said just two of 34 voters who cast provisional ballots because they lacked voter ID showed up at county offices to validate their vote in the 2007 municipal election. Their signatures all matched those on file, but could not be counted because of the photo ID requirement.