There’s a difference between having the right to do something and having the ability to do something.
Just look at voting during the Jim Crow era. On paper, Black men and Black women had the right to vote after the 15th and 19th Amendments were ratified, respectively. However, in Southern states, literacy tests, poll taxes, and violent intimidation prevented Black people from exercising that right. White lawmakers were desperate to stop communities they viewed as undesirable voting blocs from wielding power at the ballot box.
It was one of the ugliest chapters of our nation’s history. And its legacy still lives on through modern-day restrictions on the right to vote — including burdensome voter ID laws that disproportionately target Black, brown, elderly, student, rural, and low-income voters.
Where do voter ID laws come from?
In 2002, Congress passed a law that gave states different options for verifying voters’ identities, opening the door for particularly strict requirements. Indiana took the ball and ran with it, enacting what was seen as the strictest voter ID law in the country. In 2008, the Supreme Court upheld it — giving other states the green light to follow suit.
The floodgates opened even further in 2013, when the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. States with a history of voting discrimination no longer had to get new voting laws pre-cleared by the Justice Department. That very same day , Texas implemented a strict photo ID requirement for voting. Now, 36 states have voter ID laws, with 19 requiring photo IDs.
Who gets hurt by restrictive voter ID requirements?
Plenty of eligible voters don’t have any form of photo ID, but the numbers are particularly high for certain communities: 25% of voting-age Black Americans, 18% of citizens aged 65 or older, 16% of Latino voters, and 15% of voting-age Americans who make less than $35,000 a year. And the racial turnout gap has grown in states that have passed strict voter ID laws.
If someone can’t take time off work to go get a driver’s license, doesn’t live somewhere where they can take public transit to get to the DMV, or has to pay fees to get an acceptable ID, that requirement serves as a type of poll tax.
And the different types of IDs that states accept can have discriminatory effects. Texas, for example, allows handgun licenses but not student IDs — throwing a roadblock in front of young voters who may not have another way to prove their eligibility.
Do these laws solve any actual problems?
Anti-voter lawmakers claim that strict voting ID mandates can prevent so-called “voter fraud.” But studies have shown that cases of alleged voter impersonation usually come from clerical errors or bad data matching. The same studies found that the incidence rate is extremely low — between 0.0003% and 0.0025%. The Brennan Center claimed it’s more likely an American “will be struck by lightning than that he will impersonate another voter at the polls.”
It’s clear: Harsh voter ID laws limit the freedom to vote, particularly for communities that have already been marginalized.
At Fair Fight Action, we’ll continue to advocate against burdensome and restrictive voter ID mandates — because all eligible voters should be able to make their voices heard at the ballot box.
And you help make this work possible, alongside a team of activists across the country. Thank you for your steadfast support. Side by side, we’ll continue to fight for free and fair elections.
Together,
The Fair Fight Action Team
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