From this Sundays’s AJC editorial page:
If you don’t have your photo ID, you should not be able to vote. Voting is a privilege, not a right.
— Republican Mike Daniel, who voted at Dunwoody High School in DeKalb County
I’m no Constitutional scholar, but the 15th Amendment, 19th Amendment, 23rd Amendment, 24th Amendment, 26th Amendment and the Votings Right Act of 1965 pretty much make it clear that it is a right.
You’re free to have whatever opinion you want about Georgia voter ID issue, but at least get the facts right when you make an argument.
I am no Constitutional scholar either. However, your interpretation of the above mentioned amendments is incorrect. At least insofar as it pertains to Presidential elections. The Constitution itself does not guarantee a “right to vote.” This decision is left up to the individual states. What these Amendments do is to provide parameters to the states by which they may not limit the voting franchise IF that state does decide to provide a right to vote in its state constitution.
Michael Dorf, a law professor at Columbia Law, summarizes this well in a column entitled “WE NEED A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO VOTE IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS:”
“A close reading of the decision in that case, Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board, reveals a clear consensus for what will strike many Americans as an outrageous proposition: there is no constitutional right to vote in a Presidential election. The fact that the state in which you reside even permits you to vote for electors is purely a matter of legislative grace. That needs to change. The Constitution should be amended to ensure that voting in Presidential elections is a matter of right…”
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dorf/20001213.html