JACKSON - Gov. Haley Barbour says he won't accept a voter identification bill that exempts older people from proving who they are.
Barbour has called lawmakers back to the Capitol for a special session that begins Wednesday, with civil justice changes and voter ID on the agenda.
During the regular session, the House passed a voting bill that said people born before Jan. 1, 1940, would not have to show a driver's license or other ID. The exception addressed concerns that requiring ID could be used to intimidate older black voters who once had to pay poll taxes. There was also a provision that allowed voters to sign affidavits if they didn't have ID.
The Senate later amended the bill to remove the exemption and affidavit language.
Because the two chambers couldn't agree on a final version of the bill, the voter ID proposals died when the regular session ended Sunday.
"Am I willing to have an age exemption? The answer is no," Barbour said this week.
"We all know that one of the principal voter frauds that we want to prevent is people pretending to be someone they're not, particularly someone who's dead," he said. "In Yazoo City most of the dead people in the cemetery were born before 1940."
But the age exemption was one of the main reasons that voter identification finally garnered support from some members of the Legislative Black Caucus, said Rep. Ferr Smith, vice chairman of the House Apportionment and Elections Committee.
Smith, D-Carthage said without the exemption, black support is lost.
Voter ID has been a contentious subject at the Capitol for years. Supporters say the measure would strengthen the integrity of elections. Opponents say poll workers could misinform or intimidate voters.
Smith said Republicans have been unwilling to negotiate.
"It's either their way or the highway. That's their position on everything," Smith said.
Senate Elections Chairman Bobby Chamberlin, R-Hernando, said the last offer the Senate made to the House included the age exemption.
"If they would agree to leave the affidavit language out, then we would agree to leave the 1940 language in as they sent it us," Chamberlin said.
The House turned it down.
"The process starts over. We've got to deal with it as we come to it. We're going to consider the pros and cons of any proposal and keeping in mind what it takes to have a strong voter ID bill," Chamberlin said.
Seventeen states, most of them in the South, have mandatory voter identification laws.
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