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Sen. Evan Bayh, a Democrat, criticized the Supreme Court for its Monday decision to uphold a voter-identification law in Bayh’s home state of Indiana.

The law requires voters to present photo identification at their polling places. Bayh told PBS talk-show host Tavis Smiley that the requirement, which the court supported on a 6-3 vote, will disenfranchise too many minority, disabled and elderly voters.

Bayh rejected the notion that the law is necessary for security reasons. “[I]n the absence of voter fraud, I just don’t see the reasoning for this,” he said.

Categories: Indiana, Producer's Picks, Evan Bayh, Civil Liberties, Government Reform, Courts, Voting Rights

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NEW YORK — At the Networked Journalism Summit here today, Jacob Soboroff of the election reform group Why Tuesday mentioned a video encounter he had with Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Biden Jr. at a Cosi sandwich shop in Washington.

Earlier this year, Why Tuesday asked all of the presidential candidates to submit videos outlining their plans for election reform. There have been no takers so far. But Soboroff had a videocamera with him at lunch that day, so he put the question to Sen. Biden of Delaware, who at first resisted the idea of an on-camera interview but later relented.

“You wanna reform elections, support my total public financing of elections,” Biden said. “The amount of money in these campaigns is obscene.” He also called for mandatory paper receipts to confirm ballots cast on e-voting machines, among other ideas.

UPDATE, 10/24: Democratic candidate Christopher Dodd was put on the election reform spot after a debate in South Carolina during the summer, and Why Tuesday just put the video online. “Each state wants to do this differently,” Dodd said. “Standards ought to be the same. But allowing states to decide how best their people want to cast their ballots is something I’d be reluctant to say that the national government ought to tell everybody exactly how you’re going to vote.”

I’ll update this post with more video links as they become available.

UPDATE, 11/4: Why Tuesday now has video thoughts about election reform from 10 of the 16 presidential candidates — six Democrats and four Republicans.

The latest videos are from: Democrats Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson; and Republicans Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo.

None of the Republican frontrunners — Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney — have taken the Why Tuesday challenge. The group also has video of GOP candidate Fred Thompson walking away from an opportunity to answer questions from Why Tuesday’s Soboroff.

UPDATE, 11/15: Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Edwards have taken the Why Tuesday challenge, bringing the overall response to 12 out of 16 candidates.

Categories: Producer's Picks, Politics, Technology, Joseph Biden Jr., Government Reform, Voting Rights

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The House today passed a bill that would prohibit and punish deceptive practices that aim to keep voters away from the polls.

John Conyers, D-Mich.: Protecting the right to vote “is the cornerstone right of our democracy. … Protecting this right, however, has not been an easy task.”

Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill.: “In its finest sense, [the bill] speaks to the voice of democracy. … [N]othing is more American than voting, and nothing could be more un-American than deceiving one from taking the right to vote.”

Categories: Illinois, Michigan, Producer's Picks, John Conyers, Rahm Emanuel, Voting Rights

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