For years, Republicans have argued voter fraud is so great a threat to democracy Americans should be required to present some form of photo ID — say, a driver’s license — before they can cast a ballot. ADVERTISING For years,
For years, Republicans have argued voter fraud is so great a threat to democracy Americans should be required to present some form of photo ID — say, a driver’s license — before they can cast a ballot.
So, it stands to reason Republican leaders would be thrilled with new laws that automatically register people to vote when they obtain a driver’s license, right?
Not so much. Republicans claim setting all those prospective voters loose with photo IDs, wait for it, increases the risk of fraud.
Apparently, there’s just no pleasing the GOP — especially when the voters in question happen to belong to demographic groups that tend to vote against the party.
In the seven years since Barack Obama was elected president, 18 states — most of them led by Republicans — passed laws requiring voters to show some form of ID.
Research indicates as many as 25 percent of African-Americans don’t have a government-issued ID, the form most often required. The numbers also are disproportionately high for Latinos, young people and the poor, all of whom tend to lean Democratic.
Thirty-two states now have ID measures in effect. Nine require photo ID and eight others approved photo ID laws that grant narrow exceptions. Missouri’s attempts to require photo ID have been struck down by the courts, but the state GOP hasn’t given up.
Kansas and three other states raised the hurdles even higher, requiring would-be voters to provide proof of citizenship before they can register.
Amid all this, research continues to show voter fraud is virtually nonexistent. A recent study by Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt, for example, found 31 incidents of alleged fraud by voter impersonation out of more than 1 billion votes cast in the United States between 2000 and 2014.
There are some rays of hope in the fight against disenfranchisement. In August, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling Texas violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act when it imposed a strict voter ID law.
And voting rights advocates scored major victories this year when California and Oregon passed laws that automatically register people to vote when they receive their driver’s license, unless they opt out.
Republicans contend the measures enable noncitizens to vote fraudulently. But California and Oregon require multiple proofs of ID to obtain a driver’s license.
Automatic registration of voters is good for democracy, but it’s obvious people who want to thwart the electoral process won’t give up easily.
In Republican-led Alabama, a state that requires photo ID from its voters, officials recently announced they would shut down 31 driver’s license offices where people can obtain IDs if they don’t drive. The closures were described as a cost-saving measure, but it’s no coincidence they hit every county where African-Americans make up more than 75 percent of registered voters.
A state that once subjected its black citizens to “how many bubbles are in a bar of soap?” tests really ought to know better. And the rest of America shouldn’t have trouble picturing why today’s more genteel but equally pernicious obstacles to voting should fall.
— St. Louis Post-Dispatch
