Bob Bauer recently remarked that if “FEC Commissioner Brad Smith did not exist, members of the reform community would work hard to invent him.” In a similar spirit, I am glad that Jonah Goldberg has written this oped on ex-felon voting for the Los Angeles Times (link via Brian Leiter).
In my draft article on election administration reform, I discuss one of my three reform proposals—to couple universal voter registration conducted by the government with government-issued voter identification (VID). Part of my discussion deals with potential criticisms, and it includes the following:

I see three potential objections to this package deal from the Republican side. First, there is the cost associated with this government program. It will no doubt be expensive for the federal government to create and maintain this massive database and to provide VIDs with photographs and biometric information for every eligible voter. Second, at least some Republicans likely still maintain the notion that it should not be so easy for people to vote. Under this view, registration barriers will segregate out those voters who are likely to be less intelligent or less concerned. Third, the plan has significant federalism costs by taking away registration powers from the 13,000 local electoral jurisdictions and placing that role in the hands of the federal government.

One thoughtful reader of my draft argued that I should give contemporary examples of Republicans who maintain the notion that it should not be so easy to vote, believing that my characterization was unfair. (I do offer a quote from the Texas attorney general in 1971 (who I assume was a Democrat, but I have not checked), who defended his state’s onerous voter registration requirements as follows: