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Proposed voter ID law fails

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An initiative that would have required voters to show government-issued photo identification to have their ballot counted has failed to qualify for the November ballot, the Secretary of State’s Office announced this week.

Valid signatures from 504,760 registered voters—5 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2010 general election—needed to be submitted by May 30 to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

Because initiative backers did not submit the minimum number of signatures to county election officials needed to qualify the measure, the number submitted was not announced.

The initiative would have established provisional voting for citizens at the polls who failed to present government-issued photo identification.

The provisional ballots and mail-in ballots would have been invalid unless the accompanying envelope contained the voter’s birthdate and citizen’s identification number or last four digits of the driver’s license, state identification card or Social Security number.

Election officials would have been required to verify the identification information before opening or counting the ballot.

If the initiative had become law, it would have resulted in increased local government election costs and decreased state fee revenues, potentially in the range of tens of millions of dollars per year, according to an analysis prepared by the Legislative Analyst and Department of Finance.

There would be potentially increased state funding, about $100 million, to local governments, offset by an equal amount of decreased state funding to local governments in future years, according to the analysis.

Supporters of voter identification laws have said they are necessary to combat fraud and keep non-citizens from voting. Opponents have said the laws disenfranchise poor and non-White voters and the amount of voter fraud is exaggerated.

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