The unusual death of a House-sponsored voter ID bill at thehands of a few Senate Republicans will have ramifications for thesenators, the issue and the party in general, local legislatorssaid.

House Bill 1533, which would have created the Election ReformAct of 2009 and required voters to present photo identification atthe polls, had perhaps the best chance of passage of any voter IDbill in years.

Then, unbelievably to both parties, the bill was killed in theSenate Elections Committee at the hands of Sens. Joey Fillingane,Merle Flowers and Billy Hewes – all Republicans. They citedopposition to the bill’s inclusion of early voting provisions, aswell as its allowance of first-time, non-violent felons tore-register to vote after paying their debt to society.

House Republicans and Democrats alike, who spent six hoursdebating the bill in an uncanny display of compromise on such a hotpolitical issue, believe the three senators killed HB 1533 topreserve the voter ID issue for future political use. By doing so,they have hurt their own careers and the Republican Party inMississippi, some fellow lawmakers believe.

“They have a lot of fences to mend right now,” District 92 Rep.Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, said of the Senate Republicans. “Theysaid they weren’t going to send up that bill with all of that init. Why didn’t they send it back to us amended? You’re not going toget everything you want in a bill. I wish parts of it weren’t inthere, too, but it would beat dead people voting.”

Currie said she was “shocked” when news of HB 1533’s death wasannounced, and she believes the three senators may have oversteppedthe will of their party.

“I know the governor and lieutenant governor had some heartburnabout the suffrage and early voting, but no one ever said kill it,”she said. “You work with it, fix some of it, but you don’t justkill it. The end result is what matters.”

Currie is not impressed with the idea of putting voter ID on areferendum during the next election. Neither are Democrats, whotook the bill’s death easier than Republicans like Currie, but weresurprised nonetheless.

“You win some, you lose some and some you just quit on, Iguess,” said District 91 Rep. Bob Evans, D-Monticello. “Of course,most of the bills that I thought had at least a chance to survivepartisanship, that’s where most of them go to die. I guess that’sthe equivalent of the elephant graveyard.”

Evans said the death of HB 1533 at Republican hands wouldsignificantly lessen the importance annually attached to the issue- even if it is included in a referendum – and would even thepolitical playing field between the Republicans and Democrats.

“How are they going to justify themselves being able to use thatas a political issue anymore when the Democrats gave them a billand they killed it?” he said. “To me, that puts to rest thatparticular issue.”

District 53 Rep. Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto, said the threesenators’ supposed plans to save voter ID as an election issue whenseeking higher office in the future would backfire when angryRepublican voters turn out to strike down their careers.

“I think the flaw in their plan is that they probably boughtthemselves some opponents in the next Republican primary,” he said.”That’s their flaw – and they don’t see it. But everybody elsedoes, and they’re lining up to get them.”

District 39 Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, D-Brookhaven – a member ofthe Senate Elections Committee – could not be reached forcomment.