VOTER ID, FELON BILLS PROGRESS IN PANEL

MONTGOMERY The Alabama Legislature inched closer Tuesday to approving
legislation that would require voter identification at the polls and let
some felons vote again after they are released from prison.

The Senate Constitution, Campaign Finance, Ethics and Elections Committee
approved both bills, which have been moving as a package, in an informal
agreement between Democrats and Republicans.

The House of Representatives has approved both bills in the past but they
have died in the Senate.

The voter identification bill by Rep. Jim Carns, R-Mountain Brook, would
require a voter to show one of 15 forms of identification, including many
without a photograph, or sign an affidavit.

Voting as another person would become a felony, instead of a misdemeanor.

The bill was modeled after Georgia law.

"It is a reasonable middle ground. It has worked well in Georgia," said
Secretary of State Jim Bennett.

Bennett, who introduced a voter ID bill as a state senator in the 1980s,
said he hoped lawmakers would finally pass the measure after spending much
of this four-year term debating it.

"The support for voter ID in the Senate is deeper than I've seen it
before," he said.

Some Republicans, including Lt. Gov. Steve Windom, have pushed for a
photo-only form of the bill, saying the Carns' version is too soft.

However, Carns said the U.S. Department of Justice rejected a similarly
strict law in Louisiana.

"The Justice Department will not allow Alabama or any other state to have
photo only," Carns said.

Accepted forms of identification would be: an Alabama driver's license, a
state ID card, a U.S. passport, a government ID with photo, an employee ID
with photo, a student ID with photo, a hunting or fishing license, a pistol
permit, a pilot's license, a military ID, a birth certificate, a Social
Security card, naturalization papers, court records showing an adoption or
name change, or cards for food stamps, Medicaid or Medicare.

The committee also approved the felon voting bill on a 6-4 vote along party
lines.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Yvonne Kennedy, D-Mobile, would allow felons
excluding murderers, rapists, child molesters and traitors to vote after
completing their sentence, parole and restitution requirements.

Now, felons can vote only after petitioning and winning approval from the
Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Committee members added an amendment that included drug trafficking with
the list of excluded offenses. Advocates of the bill objected afterward,
vowing to try to have it removed.

"It guts the bill," said Kennedy. The small amount of drugs required to
qualify for a trafficking conviction would prohibit many people from being
able to vote, she said.

Kennedy said the move could derail the agreement to move the two bills in
tandem.

Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, warned that anyone who tries to
unhitch the bills will face a tough fight from him in the Alabama Senate,
where the bills go next for action.

"That's simply not going to happen," he said.