Challenging Voter ID

by Gary Varvel

by Kirby Anderson, Point of View: As more and more states pass voter ID laws, there is the inevitable backlash from politicians who argue that checking identification smacks of racism. The latest comments come from Bill Clinton. The former president warned: “There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all other Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today.”

A recent Wall Street Journal editorial highlights the fact that many of the states that passed these voter ID laws are not in the south where Jim Crow laws were prevalent. Wisconsin, Kansas, and Rhode Island are just a few of the non-southern states that believe that a voter should be required to show some identification.

Bill Clinton also claimed that Republicans are trying to “make the 2012 electorate look more like the 2010 electorate than the 2008 electorate.” Other Democrats disagree with him. Democrats control both state legislative houses in Rhode Island, and the
Democratic speaker there co-sponsored the new voter ID law. Jon Brien says that “party leaders have tried to make this a Republican versus Democrat issue. It’s not. It’s simply a good government issue.”

Most Americans agree. They know that they need to show a photo ID before they board an airplane, rent a video, or cash a check. A Rasmussen poll in June showed that three-fourths (75%) of likely voters favor voter ID laws. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of Democrats also favor these laws.

Federal court decisions also uphold the constitutionality of voter ID laws. The author of the 2008 Supreme Court decision was John Paul Stevens, one of the more liberal justices. He wrote that such laws do not constitute an undue burden on citizens attempting to vote. The last two elections have shown that minority voting in states with voter ID laws went up not down.

Despite what some politicians might say, these laws are not racist or partisan but are being implemented to prevent voter fraud. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.

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