When you cast your vote, some Americans feel you should have to show a card proving your identity. Others believe just as strongly that such a requirement would be undemocratic.

This perennial debate has found its way, again, to the U.S. Supreme Court. It has also roiled San Diego County politics as local leaders and activists stake out sides in a struggle that could sway upcoming elections.

The arguments, even the sense of the scope of the potential problem, split largely along party lines:

Republicans tend to worry a great deal about voter fraud;

Democrats tend to be more concerned about voter disenfranchisement.

At issue is nothing less than the integrity of U.S. elections.

As Californians prepare to vote in the state's earliest-ever presidential primary Feb. 5, concerns over citizenship, identification documents, elections integrity and partisan power are being heard at every level of U.S. government.

"Voting is a fundamental right," said Andrea Guerrero, a field and policy director with the American Civil Liberties Union in San Diego. She said laws that require voters to show proof of identity "don't prevent fraud, they create excessive burdens on voters."

Others disagree.

"I believe that's a bogus argument," said Bob Huff, a Republican assemblyman from Diamond Bar, who wrote a bill that would require people to show proper identification before voting. "There is just so few (people that don't have an identification card), and it's so easy to get a government ID card."

The officials in charge of San Diego County elections say that voters trying to vote illegally is not a common problem here. But local politicians say they want the laws changed to protect the integrity of the system.

A pair of bills, including Huff's legislation, that would have required a photo identification card before voting were recently defeated in the California Legislature.

An Indiana law that says voters must show a government-issued card to vote was debated before the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month.

The lawsuit filed by civil rights groups, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the ACLU, claimed the law discriminates against large groups of minorities and the poor who might not have a government-issued card.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to render its decision on the Indiana law in June.

Fraud not biggest problem

Guerrero said worries over voter fraud were missing the larger problem.

"I think we already have a problem in San Diego with voter turnout in which less than 20 percent of the electorate come out to vote," Guerrero said. "We should be thinking of ways to get people to vote."

Some Republican lawmakers say the reason voter fraud is not detected is because it is so easy to break the rules.

"If there was fraud, we don't know about it because we can't ask," Huff said.

Huff pointed to the case of a Fair Oaks couple who were sentenced to 60 days in jail for illegally voting in a school district election. He also noted that voters in Mexico are required to show government-issued voter identification cards.

Senate Bill 173, a proposal similar to Huff's bill, was defeated Thursday in the state Senate Elections Committee.

State Sen. Mark Wyland, R-Carlsbad, sponsored a similar but unsuccessful bill in 2005. Wyland's bill would have required an additional step by mandating that people show proof of citizenship before registering to vote.

State law requires that voters sign an affidavit stating they are U.S. citizens and provide an identification number, such as a driver's license number or a Social Security number. First-time voters who register by mail must submit a copy of a driver's license card or another document showing the name and address of the person.

San Diego County Registrar of Voters Deborah Seiler said the information provided by voters can be used to compare with information kept in state databases, such as the Department of Motor Vehicles records.

Seiler said she could not recall seeing any cases of people misrepresenting themselves at the polls.

Other issues

A more common occurrence is that people who are paid to register voters forge information for financial gain, Seiler said.

But that usually does not translate to people showing up to vote illegally, she added.

"If we do have evidence of fraud, we pass it along to the appropriate officials," Seiler said.

Local Republican leaders have also raised the specter of illegal immigrants voting.

In 2006, Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, who was campaigning for the 50th Congressional District seat, seized on a comment by his Democratic opponent, Francine Busby, that he said sounded like an encouragement for illegal immigrants to vote.

At an Escondido event, a Spanish-speaking questioner told Busby he wanted to help her campaign but lacked voting papers. The question was translated into English and she responded to the largely Latino audience, "Everybody can help. You can all help. You don't need papers for voting, you don't need to be a registered voter to help."

Bilbray criticized Busby, saying she was encouraging possible illegal immigrants to volunteer for the campaign. The Republican Party also aired a radio ad that said, "That's right. Francine Busby says you don't need papers to vote."

Other local officials have struck a similar note warning against noncitizens voting.

In a guest editorial published in the North County Times two years ago, county Supervisor Bill Horn wrote, "We have a right to know that only American citizens vote in our elections. Proof of citizenship when registering to vote helps ensure that democracy is protected at the polls."

Horn's Op-Ed article came on the heels of a unanimous vote of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors supporting measures requiring proof of citizenship before voting.

Guerrero dismissed those arguments, saying that the lawmakers are "chasing a ghost."

"There's a lot of problems in the migrant community, but they are not trying to vote," she said.

A 2006 report by the federal Election Assistance Commission said that there was little evidence of widespread voter fraud.

"More researchers find (voter fraud) to be less of a problem than is commonly described in the political debate," according to the commission's report.

It added that: "There is widespread but not unanimous agreement that there is little polling place fraud, or at least much less than is claimed, including voter impersonation, (such as) 'dead' voters, noncitizen voting and felon voters."

Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.