IV 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 247 
Expressing the sense of Congress that a requirement that United States 
citizens obtain photo identification cards before being able to vote has 
not been shown to ensure ballot integrity and places an undue burden 
on the legitimate voting rights of citizens. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 20, 2005 
Mr. LEWIS of Georgia (for himself, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. DOGGETT, Mr. NEAL 
of Massachusetts, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. FILNER, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. 
KUCINICH, Mr. HOYER, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. EMANUEL, Mr. BROWN 
of Ohio, Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. STARK, Mr. 
FATTAH, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. HONDA, and Ms. SCHAKOWSKY) 
submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on the Judiciary 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of Congress that a requirement that 
United States citizens obtain photo identification cards 
before being able to vote has not been shown to ensure 
ballot integrity and places an undue burden on the legiti-
mate voting rights of citizens. 
Whereas the most fundamental right accorded to citizens by 
the Constitution of the United States is the right to vote, 
and the unimpeded exercise of this right is essential to 
the functioning of our democracy;
•HCON 247 IH 
Whereas historically, certain citizens, especially racial minori-
ties, have been prevented from voting because of signifi-
cant barriers such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and prop-
erty requirements; 
Whereas lives were lost in the long and difficult struggle to 
remove these and other barriers to voting, including the 
passage of the 15th, 19th, and 24th Amendments to the 
Constitution of the United States; 
Whereas in the face of persistently low voter turnout relative 
to other industrialized democracies, exaggerated fears of 
voter impersonation have led to calls for more stringent 
voter identification requirements, including the use of 
government-issued photo identification cards as the only 
approved form of identification; 
Whereas there has been no substantiated evidence of any sig-
nificant incidence of fraud due to voter impersonation, 
and the more serious attack on ballot integrity has been 
the discounting of millions of ballots, including an esti-
mated 6,000,000 ballots in the 2000 Presidential elec-
tion; 
Whereas there is no evidence that photo identification re-
quirements address the few isolated instances of fraud; 
Whereas nationwide 12 percent of voting-age Americans do 
not have a driver’s license, most of whom are minorities, 
new citizens, the indigent, the elderly, or the disabled; 
Whereas government-issued identification cards can cost as 
much as $85 and are often unnecessary for the daily 
needs of or inaccessible to many urban, rural, elderly, 
and indigent voters who do not own cars; 
Whereas the National Commission on Federal Election Re-
form reported in 2001 that a photo identification require-
•HCON 247 IH 
ment would ‘‘impose an additional expense on the exer-
cise of the franchise, a burden that would fall dispropor-
tionately on people who are poorer and urban’’; 
Whereas an alarming number of States, including most re-
cently the State of Georgia, have passed proposals requir-
ing voters to produce government-issued photo identifica-
tion at the polls; 
Whereas the State of Georgia no longer allows affidavits af-
firming one’s identity to meet the identification require-
ment for voting, a change that will likely disproportion-
ately affect minorities, new United States citizens, the in-
digent, the elderly, and the disabled; 
Whereas 150,000 senior citizens in Georgia do not have a 
form of government-issued photo identification; 
Whereas residents in Georgia can obtain the newly required 
voter identification card in only 56 places in all 159 
counties in Georgia, with no places currently in Atlanta; 
Whereas Georgia permit various forms of proof of identity to 
be used to obtain government-issued identification that it 
does not similarly accept when its citizens attempt to ex-
ercise the constitutionally protected right to vote; 
Whereas the State of Georgia will charge United States citi-
zens at least $20 to purchase one of the government- 
issued photo identification cards required by the new 
State law, unless they wish to endure the potential humil-
iation of swearing to their indigence; 
Whereas poll taxes are prohibited in Federal elections by the 
24th Amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States and in state elections by a 1966 United States Su-
preme Court case;
•HCON 247 IH 
Whereas the Secretary of State of Georgia has stated that 
photo identification would not have resolved any in-
stances of voter fraud; 
Whereas the Voting Rights Act of 1965 requires that Georgia 
and other States with histories of discrimination in elec-
tions prove that election laws do not hinder minorities’ 
access to the polls and have such measures approved by 
the United States Department of Justice before imple-
mentation; 
Whereas the Department of Justice’s approval of the Georgia 
statute in August 2005 was a troubling example of a re-
cent trend towards weakening voter protections and 
condoning voter suppression; 
Whereas the Commission on Federal Election Reform rec-
ommended that States should implement mandatory 
state-issued photo identification for voting at the polls, 
despite the lack of evidence that such identification will 
address documented incidents of voter fraud; 
Whereas Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath have destroyed 
or rendered unusable the official records of many state 
and local government agencies in Louisiana, Mississippi, 
and Alabama, as well as the documents of thousands of 
residents in those States, which will significantly com-
plicate the ability of these residents to obtain photo iden-
tification cards; 
Whereas the residents of the Gulf Coast region, and in par-
ticular those residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina, 
have already suffered immeasurably in recent weeks and 
should not be further burdened by losing their right to 
vote because they cannot obtain photo identification 
cards; and
•HCON 247 IH 
Whereas an electoral system with integrity is one that allows 
all eligible voters the opportunity to cast their votes, and 
thus election reform must further democratic empower-
ment, not disenfranchisement: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) a requirement that United States citizens 
obtain photo identification cards before being able to 
vote has not been shown to ensure ballot integrity 
and places an undue burden on the legitimate voting 
rights of citizens; 
(2) the Department of Justice should vigorously 
enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and challenge 
any State law that limits a citizen’s ability to vote 
based on discriminatory photo identification require-
ments; and 
(3) any effort to impose national photo identi-
fication requirements for voting should be rejected. 
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