Ruling on voter ID is right one

The Indiana Democratic Party quickly launced a complaint about Monday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld the state's voter identification law.

Six of nine justices agreed Indiana's photo ID requirement represented a valid measure to deter voter fraud. The decision reaches beyond our borders, as other states have been adopting even tougher voter identification standards.

Critics, including the Indiana Democratic Party, have argued the law blocks people from participating in the electoral process.

In an e-mail Monday afternoon, Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker said he was disappointed with the court's decision and "pledged that work will continue to protect the rights of Hoosiers to vote." Parker claimed "nothing has been settled on this issue, and we will carry on our fight to remove any unnecessary barriers that stand between the citizens of this state and the ballot box."

We agree with the court - the law is not infringing on the right of Hoosiers to vote.

It's a rare person these days who doesn't have some kind of photo identification card, and for those who don't drive, the state can provide a free photo ID card through the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

And it's not as though people without photo IDs are simply turned away at the polls on Election Day. They can cast a provisional ballot and return later with proper identification to ensure their vote counts. Similarly, the intent of the law is to ensure that your vote doesn't count more than once.

We agree with Justice John Paul Stevens, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justice Anthony Kennedy in concluding there was little "concrete evidence" the photo identification requirements imposed an undue burden on voters. They said the requirement was reasonable even if "partisan interests may have provided one motivation" for the law.  Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Jr. also ruled in favor of the law.

Dissenting, Justice David Souter wrote many of the estimated 43,000 Indiana voters - about 1 percent of the state's total - who lack a required photo ID card "are likely to be in bad shape economically," likening the law to old Southern poll taxes struck down by the Supreme Court in the 1960s. We think that's a stretch. A huge stretch.