voter ID laws are being used for voter suppression

[JosephDredd]

A long time ago @PrinceOfPain asked me how I could have a problem with voter ID laws, not understanding that they sound like common sense on the the surface, but have only been used to strip Americans of their constitutional right to vote.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/opinion/roy-moore-alabama-senate-voter-suppression.html

In 2011, Alabama lawmakers passed a photo ID law, ostensibly to combat voter fraud. But “voter impersonation” at polling places virtually never happens. The truth is that the lawmakers wanted to keep black and Latino voters from the ballot box. We know this because they’ve always been clear about their intentions.

A state senator who had tried for over a decade to get the bill into law, told The Huntsville Times that a photo ID law would undermine Alabama’s “black power structure.” In The Montgomery Advertiser, he said that the absence of an ID law “benefits black elected leaders.”

The bill’s sponsors were even caught on tape devising a plan to depress the turnout of black voters — whom they called “aborigines” and “illiterates” who would ride “H.U.D.-financed buses” to the polls — in the 2010 midterm election by keeping a gambling referendum off the ballot. Gambling is popular among black voters in Alabama, so they thought if it had remained on the ballot, black voters would show up to vote in droves.


Photo ID laws may seem innocuous. For many of us, it might be easy to take a few hours off from work, drive to the nearest department of motor vehicles office, wait in line, take some tests, hand over $40 and leave with a driver’s license that we can use to vote. But this requires resources that many rural, low-income people around the country simply do not have.

I work with poor, black Alabamians. Many of them don’t have cars or driver’s licenses and make under $10,000 a year. They cannot afford to pay someone to drive them to the motor vehicles or registrar’s office, which is often miles away.

Photo ID laws are written to make it difficult for people like them to vote. And that’s exactly what happens. A study by Zoltan Hajnal, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego, comparing the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections, found that the voter ID law kept black voters from the polls. After Alabama implemented its strict voter ID law, turnout in its most racially diverse counties declined by almost 5 percentage points, which is even more than the drop in diverse counties in other states.

The study controls for numerous factors that might otherwise affect an election: how much money was spent on the races; the state’s partisan makeup; changes in electoral laws like early voting and day-of registration; and shifts in incentives to vote, like which party controls the state legislature.

That's not so bad, you say; they just need to get the proper ID to vote. How unreasonable is that? Well, many states are deliberately choosing to accept ID that they know GOP voters are likely to have and that Democrat voters are unlikely to have or rejecting ID that democratic voters are likely to have. For instance, Texas will accept a concealed handgun license to vote, but not a student ID from a post-secondary institution.

http://fortune.com/2016/11/07/minority-voters-election/

A federal appeals court ruled this summer that the state’s 2011 voter ID law discriminated against minorities and the poor, ordering officials to relax the ID requirements for the November election. Experts had said the law was among the toughest in the nation, requiring voters to show one of seven acceptable forms of photo identification that included a concealed handgun license but not a college student ID.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/benjamin-todd-jealous/the-state-of-pennsylvania_b_1821445.html

In states like Texas and Pennsylvania, the law takes it a step further, targeting students who are a part of the fastest growing voting bloc. While Texas eliminates student IDs from the list, the PA voter ID law eliminates student IDs without expiration dates. Coincidentally, the majority of Pennsylvania college and university IDs lack an expiration date. In the 14-school PASSHE system alone, which has agreed to issue compliant student IDs to incoming students but only market the option to continuing students, an estimated 120,000 students could be disenfranchised.

And it's not just voter ID laws. Some states allow voters to be challenged. The voters then need to either go home and come back again with different ID (and most people don't have the ability to spend 6-8 hours casting a fucking vote -- which is deliberate, because in these same districts voting locations are being shut down to create long line-ups and other unfavourable conditions) or they need to go and find a friend who will sign an affidavit confirming their identity.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/s...ennsylvania-polls-voters-trump-clinton-214297

The stalled line wasn’t because of the high turnout. It was what was happening at the check-in desk.


“The attorneys for the Republican Party were challenging the credentials of pretty much every young voter who showed up,” recalls Pat Clark, a Pittsburgh activist and registered Democratwho was working for an election-protection group that day.

The GOP attorneys were acting as poll watchers. A common practice in many states, partisan poll watching helps parties get out the vote and keep an eye out for irregularities. But in Pennsylvania, laws governing how observers can challenge voters are unusually broad, and that makes them susceptible to abuse.

On that day in 2004, students who were challenged by the GOP lawyers were told they needed to find a friend who could sign an affidavit proving their identity and residence.

...

In 2003, despite the court order, someone tried the 1981 intimidation strategy in the Philadelphia mayor’s race. Men wearing suits with law-enforcement lapel pins and carrying clipboards drove around black neighborhoods in Philly in unmarked vans, watched voters go to the polls, and asked many of them for identification. Some warned falsely that voters could be arrested at the polls if they owed child support. The incident remains infamous in progressive election-protection circles.

In 2004, some of the University of Pittsburgh students who were caught in the interminable line arrived at the front to discover they weren’t registered in the poll books. Some of them were victims of a dirty trick played on college campus in three states in that year: canvassers sent by GOP operatives had gotten students to sign petitions supporting medical marijuana or lower car insurance rates, then used their information to submit bogus changes to their voter registrations.

https://www.americanprogress.org/is...aws-cost-americans-their-voices-at-the-polls/

Virginia experienced its first presidential election with the state’s new voter ID requirement. Experts expressed concern that voters would be confused by the new ID requirements or would not be willing to go through the hassle of getting a temporary ID offered by the state.13 Some voters reportedly made the trek to the election registrar’s office on Election Day to get temporary IDs so they could return to their polling place and vote. However, there is no way to determine how many citizens were unprepared for the newly required forms of ID and were unable to spend the time to get it and return to the polls that day. The state’s budget for implementation was a fraction of what was provided in 2012 to educate voters during the implementation of previous, less restrictive voter ID law.14

Poll workers in Michigan incorrectly told voters that they needed to show identification to vote. While Michigan does have a voter ID law, it does not require an ID to vote; instead, voters have the option of filling out an affidavit swearing to their identity. There are no hard data on how many Michigan voters were improperly turned away for lacking an ID.15 There were also reports in Pennsylvania of people trying to vote but being told incorrectly that they needed to show identification.16 Alabama also had its first presidential election with a new voter ID law;17 at the same time, the state made it much more difficult for some people to obtain a state-issued ID when it closed 31 of its state driver’s license offices last year.18 Many of those offices were located in low-income neighborhoods of color.19

...

In addition to problems with strict voter ID laws, the closure of polling places and reduction of voting hours across the country this year led to fewer people being able to cast their ballots in targeted areas. Overall, in states with histories of voting discrimination—those that had formerly been covered by the Voting Rights Act—there were 868 fewer polling places operating on Election Day.

...

Long lines also kept people from voting. Black voters across the country are, on average, forced to wait in line for twice as long as white voters.28 In just one example, voters in Durham County, North Carolina, had to stand in line for two hours after technical difficulties required election officials to check in voters using paper poll books.29 Durham County is one of the state’s Democratic strongholds.30 Long lines are problematic, most notably for low-income people and people of color who are less likely to have flexible employment and child care options that allow them to wait in line for hours at a time. A Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies report estimated that “long lines deterred at least 730,000 Americans from voting in November 2012.”31

...

Ohio was also removing hundreds of thousands of voters from the registration rolls in an illegal purge that disproportionately affected people who are low-income, African American, and registered as Democrats. An investigation found that in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati, voters were removed from the rolls in areas that lean Democratic at twice the rate they were in Republican-leaning areas.

...

Voters in Georgia faced major hurdles to registration since the state was automatically rejecting registration applications that did not exactly match all the information in the state’s database. For example, a single misplaced hyphen, apostrophe, or space would cause the application to be regarded as a mismatch. The state denied almost 35,000 citizens who had submitted registrations from 2013 to 2016. Black citizens were eight times more likely to fail the verification process, and Latinos and Asian Americans were six times more likely to be rejected by the state than white residents.39 Georgia was also sued for improperly removing registered voters from the voter rolls who had not voted in three years and who did not respond to mailings.40

https://alliedprogress.org/research/somethingspa/

It should be noted that photo ID laws have been shown to disproportionately affect minority, elderly, disabled, and low-income voters, all of whom face greater obstacles obtaining identification. A study conducted by political scientists at the University of California at San Diego analyzed voter turnout between 2008 and 2012 and found “substantial drops in turnout for minorities under strict voter ID laws.” Obtaining a photo ID can be costly and the bureaucratic process can be especially difficult for low-income and elderly voters who may not have birth certificates because they were born at home instead of in a hospital.[2] In fact, “more than 21 million Americans do not have government-issued photo identification [and] a disproportionate number of [them] are low-income, racial and ethnic minorities, and elderly” voters.[3]It should be noted that photo ID laws have been shown to disproportionately affect minority, elderly, disabled, and low-income voters, all of whom face greater obstacles obtaining identification. A study conducted by political scientists at the University of California at San Diego analyzed voter turnout between 2008 and 2012 and found “substantial drops in turnout for minorities under strict voter ID laws.” Obtaining a photo ID can be costly and the bureaucratic process can be especially difficult for low-income and elderly voters who may not have birth certificates because they were born at home instead of in a hospital.[2] In fact, “more than 21 million Americans do not have government-issued photo identification [and] a disproportionate number of [them] are low-income, racial and ethnic minorities, and elderly” voters.[3]

https://www.mediaite.com/online/rep...omplaints-today-are-coming-from-pennsylvania/

According to NBC News, many voters in the Philadelphia area are being asked for ID in spite of the fact that it is not needed to vote in the state. A voter told NBC that their poll worker must not have been trained very well, but others see this as a sign of voter intimidation.

Politics USA pointed out that “Pennsylvania state law does require identification for new voters or voters voting in a new location, but a driver’s license or photo ID is not required.”

https://www.americanprogress.org/is...aws-cost-americans-their-voices-at-the-polls/

Poll workers in Michigan incorrectly told voters that they needed to show identification to vote. While Michigan does have a voter ID law, it does not require an ID to vote; instead, voters have the option of filling out an affidavit swearing to their identity. There are no hard data on how many Michigan voters were improperly turned away for lacking an ID.15 There were also reports in Pennsylvania of people trying to vote but being told incorrectly that they needed to show identification.16 Alabama also had its first presidential election with a new voter ID law;17 at the same time, the state made it much more difficult for some people to obtain a state-issued ID when it closed 31 of its state driver’s license offices last year.18 Many of those offices were located in low-income neighborhoods of color.19

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/27/voter-suppression-is-the-real-election-scandal/

Fast forward to 2004, when University of Pittsburgh students were held up for hours at the polls as Republican Party lawyers challenged the credentials of “pretty much every young voter who showed up.” That same year, in Harris County, Texas, local police officers showed up at an early voting site and demanded to see IDs, saying anyone with an outstanding warrant would go to jail. In 2012, an organizer with the right-wing poll-watching group “True the Vote” told volunteer monitors that the voters they targeted should be made to feel “like driving and seeing the police following you.”

...

At least 14 states have new restrictions in place this year, including voter ID laws, changes in registration requirements, and cuts to early voting options. In Maricopa County, the largest county in Arizona, officials closed 70 percent of the polling sites, causing long delays during the primaries and prompting a DOJ investigation. In Florida and Ohio, officials tried to purge thousands of mostly black voters from their rolls. As The Intercept has reported, Missouri legislators even proposed changing the state’s constitution — which unlike the federal one includes an affirmative right to vote — in an effort to pass stricter voter ID laws. The proposed amendment will be on the ballot on November 8. The NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund maintains a regularly updated tally of voter suppression efforts that is more than 100 pages long.

Finally, there's the fact that the Republican judge who signed the law into being said it's not being used as they expected, but simply being used to strip voters of their right to vote.

https://www.thenation.com/article/j...-id-laws-constitutional-says-he-got-it-wrong/

Indeed, the judge’s rethink ought to inspire a national rethink—about not just voter ID laws but the broader issue of voter rights.

In his new book, Reflections on Judging, Judge Posner writes, “I plead guilty to having written the majority opinion (affirmed by the Supreme Court) upholding Indiana’s requirement that prospective voters prove their identity with a photo ID—a law now widely regarded as a means of voter suppression rather than fraud prevention.”

Judge Posner, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, is not stopping there.

In an interview with HuffPost Live, Mike Sacks asked: “Do you think that the court got this one wrong?”

“Yes,” replied Judge Posner. “Absolutely. And the problem is that there hadn’t been that much activity with voter identification…. [The Seventh Circuit judges] weren’t really given strong indications that requiring additional voter identification would actually disfranchise people [who are] entitled to vote.”

Posner continued:

“There was a dissenting judge, Judge [Terence] Evans, since deceased, and I think he [was] right. But at the time I thought what we were doing was right. It is interesting that the majority opinion [from the Supreme Court] was written by Justice [John Paul] Stevens, who is very liberal, more liberal than I was or am…. But I think we did not have enough information. And of course it illustrates the basic problem that I emphasize in book. We judges and lawyers, we don’t know enough about the subject matters that we regulate, right? And that if the lawyers had provided us with a lot of information about the abuse of voter identification laws, this case would have been decided differently.”

Judge Posner should have paid closer attention to the detailed amicus brief filed in 2006 by the Brennan Center for Justice, which explained how the Indiana law threatened to “exclude many eligible voters from participating in our democratic process.”

But the jurist, one of the most prominent on the federal bench, has now come around.

And, finally, if you want to simply see a collection of GOP lawmakers openly talking about how they're using these laws to suppress Democrat voters, here are two excellent articles full of their quotes.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/...eraging-voter-id-laws-for-political-gain.html

https://www.thedailybeast.com/republicans-admit-voter-id-laws-are-aimed-at-democratic-voters

 

[lifelessheap]

Voter ID laws work for nearly every European nation, but those same rules are racist for Americans. Got it.


The Bigotry of Low Expectations strikes again. I know who the real racists are.

 

[MMAViewer]

They cant win on merit so they use voter suppression and gerrymandering to try to win and they openly admit it.

 

[JosephDredd]

Voter ID laws work for nearly every European nation, but those same rules are racist for Americans. Got it.


The Bigotry of Low Expectations strikes again. I know who the real racists are.

Hmmn. Maybe European voter ID laws aren't expressly written to disenfranchise legal voters? Did you read any portion of the OP at all? Or did you just waddle in here with your head already firmly rammed up your ass?

 

[MMAViewer]

Voter ID laws work for nearly every European nation, but those same rules are racist for Americans. Got it.


The Bigotry of Low Expectations strikes again. I know who the real racists are.

Lol, how so?
Also I find it amusing that anytime something European is championed by the Democrats the right screams and cries socialism but anytime something European aligns with the racist right you site it as a source of success. Bunch of hypocrital snowflakes, lol!

 

[zebby23]

Voter ID laws work for nearly every European nation, but those same rules are racist for Americans. Got it.


The Bigotry of Low Expectations strikes again. I know who the real racists are.

Uneducated Racist confirmed... Next time actually read the OP. TS uses numerous examples dumb dumb

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Politicians are scumbags who'll do shady shit to win. Glad I'm not one of these losers who can't figure out how to maintain a proper ID in a country that so very often requires it for various things.

 

[snakedafunky]

Voter ID laws work for nearly every European nation, but those same rules are racist for Americans. Got it.


The Bigotry of Low Expectations strikes again. I know who the real racists are.

In Germany, you have to have a national ID when you are 16+ by law.
Its called obligation of identification law. If the cops ask you for identification, you have to produce it (also in real life it's not enforced that much).

So having an ID for voting is a none issue because everyone has the ID anyway.
Fun fact that's actually something the Nazis introduced.
Not sure how other European countries handle it.

 

[ShadBo]

If ID is required to vote the Government should be required to provide ID for free.

 

[zebby23]

If ID is required to vote the Government should be required to provide ID for free.

Bingo!!

 

[Headkicktoleg]

If ID is required to vote the Government should be required to provide ID for free.

I just did a 5 second google search. Alabama DOES provide free ID

http://sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/voter/voter-id

Beginning with the June 3, 2014 primary election, Act 2011-673 requires an Alabama voter to have a specific type of photo identification at the polls in order to vote. If a voter does not have one of the approved forms of photo ID as stated in the law, then he or she may receive a free Alabama photo voter ID from various locations including the Secretary of State's Office, local county board of registrars' offices, and a mobile location to be determined by the Secretary of State's Office.

 

[Kalmah]

If ID is required to vote the Government should be required to provide ID for free.

I'd agree with that if voting were compulsory.

 

[lifelessheap]

Hmmn. Maybe European voter ID laws aren't expressly written to disenfranchise legal voters? Did you read any portion of the OP at all? Or did you just waddle in here with your head already firmly rammed up your ass?

I went to college and there were many illegal aliens. They all had school IDs. Why should such an ID allow you to vote? And a CC permit is extremely trustworthy in comparison.

I want you to do an experiment. Go find a black man or a Latino and ask them if getting an ID is a task that is far too difficult for them.

 

[HockeyBjj]

Texas will accept a concealed handgun license to vote, but not a student ID from a post-secondary institution.

To be fair here, a ccw is a state issued liscense that involves a background check, while a student ID is issued by a school with who knows if any checks into it the person is who they’re taking a picture of says they are

Also, how many people don’t have a freaking drivers liscense? Even in NY where people don’t really drive, you’d still get a liscense so that you actually can right?

I do think the best solution is simply a free gov ID for everyone without a drivers liscense

 

[HunterSdVa29]

what normal, functional member of society doesn't have a Driver's License or State ID?

even if you're poor/worthless and collect from the safety net, how exactly are you proving identification for those benefits? Where do you live? How did get onto a lease/mortgage? clearly you aren't employed b/c no job legally hires people w/o those forms of identification.....

so outside of like rednecks in Appalachia that collect ginseng for a living, who exactly is this incompetent?

If you're not a functioning citizen, that's your fault.....

 

[lifelessheap]

 

[lifelessheap]

 

[Pupi]

Same applies to States that have closed primaries during elections. Pure horseshit and a corruption of the democratic process in order to alienate voters from their rights.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

If ID is required to vote the Government should be required to provide ID for free.

Same for firearms transfers. Let society pay for what it demands.

 

[Quipling]

Voter ID laws work for nearly every European nation, but those same rules are racist for Americans. Got it.

The Bigotry of Low Expectations strikes again. I know who the real racists are.

None of the voter ID laws discussed outright created an ID requirement to vote.

Instead, they changed the ID requirements- which IDs were accepted- in ways that disproportionately favored their party. And then they made it more difficult to get those IDs before the election.

This meant that voters with previously accepted forms of IDs were no longer eligible to vote just in time for election.

You would know this if you had read the OP before mouthing off. But you didn't. Idiot.