Thoughts on Voting Laws

As I must admit in all my posts, I should do more research on this topic before I publish my opinions on it. That being said, I would like to write out my initial feelings about this subject.

In the news recently there have been several stories about controversial voting laws. As far as I know, these laws would require some sort of identification, like a driver’s license or passport, to be presented by the citizen in order to cast a vote. I see no problem with this. It should be no problem for all legal citizens of the US. I carry my driver’s license everywhere. Doesn’t everyone? Maybe I come from an exclusive area of the US where everyone happens to have and carry their driver’s licenses, but nonetheless this is the way I believe the majority of the population functions.

Now if the whole of the US had and carried ID’s, there would be no controversy. But obviously, not everyone has government issued identification. This percentage of the population has to be small. I think I know one person who doesn’t have a driver’s license; and she probably has a SS card or passport or some other kind of ID that would validate her vote. Then again I’m not living in the NYC projects where I imagine a higher percentage of the population doesn’t have proper identification.

So this is where the democrats start whining. Young people and minorities are more likely to vote democrat (just my thinking, but I’m sure there are some studies that show this is the general trend). Also, young people and minorities are less likely to have proper identification. So the democrats, in trying to save some of their key demographics, are raising a big fuss over these voter ID laws. But they are not doing so because of some objection to the substance, validity, or benefit of the law, but because the law will potentially diminish the amount of people that vote democrat.

So why do we want this law in the first place? There must have been some event that spurred its creation. I imagine it was a bunch of non-citizens (is that a word?) that managed to cast votes. Indeed, that would motivate me to write and pass such a law as the one we’ve been discussing. But then what would I say to the democrats? What would I say to the citizens in the US that can’t vote because they don’t have proper identification? I would say “Get some proper identification and then you can vote!” It’s as simple as that! How much does a driver’s license cost? $15? I know, I too find it outrageous for a small piece of rectangular plastic, but it’s manageable. I’m not sure how one goes about getting a SS card or a birth certificate, but aren’t those similar processes? Does anyone know the easiest way to obtain proper identification from the government? For me and I imagine the vast majority of the voting population, it has always been extremely easy, even if mundane, to get government issued ID’s.

Here’s another point that might come off as a little brash. If a certain citizen does not have enough money to get a proper ID, they probably don’t have enough money to stay politically informed. If they’re not politically informed, would they be voting? I don’t think so. In my experience, not even all those who are aware of the current political scene end up voting. So I imagine that those who are not politically informed vote even less often. This argument just serves to say that those who don’t have ID’s are less likely to be politically informed and less likely to cast a sincere and seriously considered vote. Don’t get me wrong, they still have the right to vote, it’s just that they are less likely to do so.

So that’s my spiel. I’ll try to do some research and find some hard numbers. As of right now, it seems to me that democrats are just complaining about a good law because it weakens them in the fall election.