"This bill anticipates people showing their Real ID driver's license when they vote," Ehlers said.
California, like many states, does not require voters to show identification before casting ballots. But six states have passed laws this year tightening identification requirements at the polls, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Of the 24 states that ask voters to bring identification to the polls on election day, seven of them -- including Georgia -- have passed legislation requiring photo IDs.
In making their case for a national law, Republican leaders cite a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal survey that showed 81% support for a photo ID requirement at the polls.
Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald of Carson, the ranking Democrat on the House Administration panel, said one reason she opposes the bill is that little evidence exists that voter fraud is a serious problem.
A witness at a House immigration hearing this summer offered anecdotal evidence of a Brazilian and a Norwegian voting in Texas elections. Republicans have voiced concern about illegal immigrants voting. But comprehensive statistics about voter fraud have not been compiled at the state or federal level.
A study by the League of Women Voters examined all elections in Ohio from 2002 to 2004 and found that .00004% of those who went to the polls were ineligible to do so. And only 86 people have been convicted of federal crimes related to election fraud out of 196,139,871 ballots cast nationwide since October 2002, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
"We do not have a large percentage of people violating our election laws," said Millender-McDonald.
She contended that the bill could disenfranchise lower-income Americans because they may decide they could not afford to obtain the documents necessary to meet the bill's requirement for proof of citizenship. Others could be discouraged if they encounter difficulties obtaining such proof, she said.
Even voters with means might end up barred from the polls, Millender-McDonald said, citing the experience of Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), who last month was unable to get a government-issued photo ID that, under a contested Missouri law, is required for voters.
Skelton arrived at a state licensing bureau without his passport or birth certificate -- the only documents the office would accept. Local officials recognized him but would not accept his congressional photo identification.
