INDIANAPOLIS | Invoking the history of Lake County vote fraud, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Indiana can continue requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls.

Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita hailed the ruling as a "victory for Hoosier taxpayers and voters" that could spur other states to consider similar fraud protections.

Former state Sen. Vic Heinold, R-Kouts, sponsored Indiana's Voter ID Law in 2005 while Republicans controlled the governor's office and both chambers of the Indiana General Assembly.

Democrats and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana immediately challenged the law as unconstitutional, arguing it would disenfranchise poor and elderly voters. But opponents have yet to demonstrate that any voter was directly harmed in the seven elections since the Voter ID Law took effect.

"Nothing has been settled on this issue, and we will carry on our fight to remove any unnecessary barriers that stand between the citizens of this state and the ballot box," Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker said Monday.

Democrats complain the Voter ID Law does nothing to address absentee ballot fraud, the method of chicanery cited in ongoing prosecutions connected to the tainted 2003 mayoral primary in East Chicago. The Indiana Supreme Court invalidated those primary results and ordered a special election the following year.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the majority, cited the 2003 East Chicago primary among examples that help "demonstrate that not only is the risk of voter fraud real but that it could affect the outcome of a close election."

Stevens said such examples show states should be given latitude to impose fraud prevention measures such as Indiana's Voter ID Law.