After the Supreme
Court ruling earlier this year that released states with a history of
discrimination from needing extra approval for voting law changes, voter
identification laws are popping up all over the country, particularly in the
south. This year, new laws in North
Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Missouri and Arkansas all passed new laws
this year requiring photo identification to vote. Laws
in Texas and South Carolina will take affect this fall also after the Supreme
Court ruled that requiring photo identification was legal. To be fair, liberal New England states such
as Connecticut and Rhode Island also passed similar laws this year.
The laws are primarily
driven by republican representatives, also though several states have required
photo id at the polls for some years.
Hawaii has required one to vote since 1978. Publically, the reason these laws have gotten
so popular is due to a supposed voter fraud issue. As the losing party is the one making voter
fraud claims, it makes the effort to stop it somewhat suspect.
Further, there
are few cases of voter fraud, and photo id laws may not prevent it from
Fraud does not seem to be the
true issue at hand when one surveys the demographic of people who may have
trouble obtaining the required documents:
the poor, immigrants, and college students. All three groups lean toward the Democratic
party.
happening.
It almost seems as
if republican leadership would rather just keep people from voting instead of
rebranding themselves as more moderate to appeal to more voters. The Justice Department is currently
investigating the laws, and Attorney General Eric Holder has called them discriminatory.
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