We’re here to talk about voter ID laws.

Burdensome and restrictive voter ID mandates are tactics pulled straight from the voter suppression playbook, and it’s our duty to speak out as anti-voter extremists continue to push them. 

If you agree that voter ID laws are discriminatory, and if you support Fair Fight Action’s efforts to stop voter suppression tactics like this, add your name right away.

Here’s what you need to know about voter ID laws:

The history: Voter ID laws only started appearing in the past 20 years, as extremists have schemed to devise new ways to block access to the ballot box. 

• In 2002, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act, opening up the opportunity for states to impose strict voter ID requirements. 
• Shortly after, Indiana became one of the first states to pass a strict voter ID law in 2005, which was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court, and served as an impetus for several other states to pass strict voter ID laws in the years following. 
• The 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Shelby County v. Holder effectively gutted the protections of the Voting Rights Act by eliminating the federal preclearance requirement so that states with a history of voting discrimination were no longer required to get approval from the Justice Department before enacting changes to voting laws. Following the Shelby ruling, at least four states were quick to enact new voter ID laws or strengthen existing ones. 
• Today, there are 36 states with voter ID laws, and nine of those are strict — opening the door for voter disenfranchisement. 

The impact: Restrictive voter ID laws disproportionately target and burden Black, brown, elderly, student, rural, and low-income voters. While extremists often attempt to justify these laws with the claim that everyone has the necessary IDs, the fact is, a significant portion of eligible voters lack the IDs required — including 18% of voters over the age of 65, 16% of Latino voters, 25% of Black voters, and 15% of low-income voters. The racial turnout gap has grown in states that have passed strict voter ID laws.

They also fail to address the so-called “voter fraud” that extremists claim is rampant — though time and again these claims have been proven blatantly false. Studies have shown that voter impersonation, which strict voter ID laws allegedly aim to stop, is rare and typically attributable to clerical errors or bad data matching. The incidence rate is extremely low — between 0.0003% and 0.0025%. 

The reality is this: Voter ID laws are a relic of the Jim Crow era, serving as a modern-day iteration of poll taxes or literacy tests. They’re yet another mechanism extremists are using to silence already marginalized communities.

Just this year, Ohio enacted what has been referred to as the strictest voter ID law in the U.S. The law requires the use of photo IDs, such as passports or driver’s licenses, to vote and prohibits the use of student IDs or county-issued veterans’ IDs. Governor Mike DeWine signed this law under the guise of “election integrity” and preventing “voter fraud” — backing up baseless claims pushed by extremists in Ohio. We can expect that anti-voter attacks will continue to ramp up ahead of the 2024 election cycle.

The actions we can take right now: Fair Fight Action is advocating against suppressive practices like discriminatory voter ID laws, and we need to know if you’re with us in this fight. Will you add your name today to show that you strongly oppose extremists’ voter ID laws?

Together,

The Fair Fight Action Team