Voter ID
With Minnesota and Pennsylvania’s Voter ID laws being challenged in court, there is much to be said about the push to tighten voter registration across the country. On one side of the debate the Right Wing is arguing that fraudulent voter registration forms are being turned in and people are assuming other identities. On the other side is Viviette Applewhite. Viviette is a 93 year old woman without a driver’s license who has managed to vote in every election for the past 50 years. Viviette and others like her are at risk of being disenfranchised by these new Voter ID pushes, argues the Left.
The truth lies somewhere in the middle of the political rhetoric. I am sure some have figured out that setting ID requirements in order to vote would hinder some people from voting. At the same time, I’ve been using the same bank for ten years now and they still ask me to show ID.
Is there voter fraud? Of course; however, Brennan Center statistics show that it happens approximately .0009 percent of the time. In fact, the voter fraud hysteria being circulated is actually based on the lumping of voter fraud in with other types of more legitimate election fraud committed by elected officials. This brings us to the main issue, the limiting of one group or another’s voice in the political process.
Voter suppression is not a new phenomenon to blacks in the United States. Blacks did not explicitly win the right to vote until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Before that many states, both Northern and Southern had laws on the books restricting the rights of blacks to vote. Changes in the racial make-up of key southern states have made them a battleground again this election. The key states of Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia have seen significant increases in the population of young voting age Blacks and Latinos, while also seeing a marked decrease in the percentage of white voters. According to The Nation “Eight of eleven states in the former Confederacy have passed restrictive voting laws since the 2010 election”
But hope is not lost. The Supreme Court has struck down the Texas Voter ID law because it would place “strict, unforgivable burdens” on minority voters and armed with Turzai’s now famous comment that Voter ID is going to help Romney win, opponents in Pennsylvania are regrouping to challenge that law after it was upheld. Young Democrats from New York City have recently gone door to door in Pennsylvania educating people about Voter ID.
While the jury is still out on how effective voter suppression will be as we approach this next election, one thing is certain; this election will not be won playing by the rules.
