Nuns Denied Right To Vote In First Test Of GOP-Driven Voter ID Laws (Updated)
Catholics are turning out in record numbers this year to vote in Democratic presidential primaries from Texas to Pennsylvania. But at least a dozen of them were turned away from the polls yesterday in Indiana under that state’s strict new voter ID law, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court just last week.
“The nuns, all residents of a retirement home at Saint Mary’s Convent near Notre Dame University, were denied ballots by a fellow sister and poll worker because the women, in their 80s and 90s, did not have valid Indiana photo ID cards,” according to the Los Angeles Times. “’It’s the law, and it makes it hard,’ said Sister Julie McGuire, who was working at the polling place and had to explain to the nuns that they could not vote. ‘Some don’t understand why.’”
Update:
State senators Mario Gallegos and Rodney Ellis have penned an op-ed in today’s Houston Chronicle to question why Texas’ Republican leadership “continues to chase a phantom menace: voter impersonation at the polls.”
“The fact is it doesn’t exists,” the two Houston Democrats conclude.
Apparently, they didn’t get the word about the rash of Catholic nuns trying to steal the Indiana primary for their favored candidate.
Meanwhile, the Waco Trib had another take this week:
Posted on May 7, 2008 – 11:47 am by APR