“This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies.” Lyndon B. Johnson
Voter ID laws are discriminatory. The restrictive laws, especially those that require voters present state-issued photo ID cards, actively curb the ability of millions of eligible voters to cast ballots. While supporters of the law innocently defend the effort as an attempt to avoid fraud, hard data disputes that claim. In fact, the true motivation of the proponents of the law is to exclude certain groups of voters from casting ballots and swaying the outcome of the election. State voter identification laws simply say that in order to cast a ballot, a voter must present specific types of identification at the polls. Thirty-one US states now require voters to present some form of state-issued ID in order to cast a ballot. Seventeen states require photo IDs in order to vote. Currently, several of those laws are facing legal challenges and could be overturned. So what’s the problem with requiring a photo ID to vote? Proponents of the law quip that you need a photo ID to drive or board an airplane or even to cash a check at a bank. But flying and driving are privileges. Voting is a right.
Laws that require identification, especially those most restrictive laws that mandate a voter provide state-issued photo identification cards, hamper the ability of millions of eligible voters to vote. Both public and private studies show that approximately 10% of eligible voters, or more than 21,000,000 people, do not have and will not obtain the documents required to vote under restrictive voter ID laws. For some groups, including black Americans and Hispanic Americans, that percentage is as high as 25%. Because of moving patterns of Americans, exacerbated by the housing crisis, many other eligible voters do not have identification with their current address, which would prohibit them from voting.
Full Article: Voter ID laws are a fraud | Washington Times Communities.