why voter id laws are unconstitutional
(CJ photo by Don Carrington. In a major victory for voting rights, Wisconsin's voter ID law has been struck down by a federal court, which found that it illegally discriminates against racial minorities. And in January, a state judge in Pennsylvania struck down that state's voter ID law. Many birth certificates and other documents have errors on them and cannot be used to obtain an ID without corrections. 13. Another liberal voice on the high court, Justice Stephen Breyer, suggested in a dissent that he would support some voter ID laws while opposing Indiana’s specific requirements. RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal appeals court ruled that a North Carolina law illegally targeted minorities with tougher ballot access rules, such as requiring photo identification to vote, adding … A volunteer poll worker rings a bell to count votes at a polling station on November 6, 2012 in Richmond, Wisconsin. Voter ID laws deprive many voters of their right to vote, reduce participation, and stand in direct opposition to our country’s trend of including more Americans in the democratic process. But a state can't abridge important rights just because it feels like it. 6. GOP legislative leaders said they would appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Your Ad Choices Eddie Van Halen's wife breaks silence after his death, Taylor Swift endorses Joe Biden for president, ‘The Real’ co-host Adrienne Houghton takes a primetime role at Fox, Ex-‘Call Her Daddy’ host Sofia Franklyn launching solo podcast, A Bunch of Naked Celebrities Filmed a Voting PSA, © 2020 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Facebook bans 'militarized' calls for poll watchers ahead of election day. Of all the textually guaranteed rights in the Constitution, "the right to vote" is mentioned most often -- indeed, beginning in 1868, it has been reaffirmed no fewer than five times, in § 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment, § 1 of the Fifteenth Amendment, the Nineteenth Amendment, § 1 of the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, and § 1 of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment. One month has elapsed since 55 percent of North Carolina’s voters agreed to amend the state Constitution. Last week, a state court struck down Arkansas's voter ID law. In my opinion, yes Voter ID Laws are constitutional so long as their are not used a means systematically block members of a race or group from casting their ballots (ie, jim crow south). First, let’s remember to separate the question about constitutionality from a consideration of whether voter ID is good or bad. The ruling decisively rejects the logic of voter ID laws. At the federal level, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the basic concept of a photo ID rule as constitutional. A felon who was voting illegally, for instance, could easily have an ID and no poll worker could tell from that ID that the person was an invalid voter. 12. As noted above, voter ID — as a concept — clearly is constitutional. Proponents of voter ID laws, mostly Republicans, maintain they are needed to prevent voter fraud and ensure free and fair elections. We've received your submission. 25 Reasons Why Voter Identification Laws Are Unconstitutional (Courtesy of Wisconsin). Critics will spend the coming weeks and months continuing to question the constitutionality of a photo identification requirement. We want to hear what you think about this article. No, voter ID laws are not unconstitutional, because they don't prevent anyone from voting that is actually a citizen that should be voting. In upholding a law that could disenfranchise 9 percent of the state's population, Judge Simpson breaks new ground in belittling a fundamental American right. 399,445, This story has been shared 115,922 times. “The record thus makes obvious that the ‘problem’ the majority in the General Assembly sought to remedy was emerging support for the minority party. It doesn't say in the constitution that voter ID laws make it too hard to vote. Adelson argued that the only way a voter ID could support this goal would be if it prevented voter-impersonation fraud, but since there was such a small amount of this fraud in the real world, the ID law couldn't be seen as providing any sufficient support to this goal. Those differences will serve as the basis for a fresh courtroom controversy. North Carolina’s presidential race could be competitive, as Barack Obama narrowly carried the state in 2008 but lost to Mitt Romney four years later. The Supreme Court’s membership has changed in the past decade, but nothing about those changes suggests Crawford’s precedent faces any jeopardy. Nationally, up to 25% of African-American citizens of voting age lack government-issued photo ID, compared to only 8% of whites. It's true that none of these provisions says, "Every citizen has a fundamental right to vote, and we ain't playing with you when we say that." No empirical evidence shows that voter ID laws like the one in Wisconsin actually increase confidence in the electoral process. “I felt disenfranchised, like I was being taken advantage of,” said Hicks, a 40-year-old black man. The photo ID requirement, which took effect with this year’s primary elections in March, required people casting ballots in person to show one of six qualifying IDs. WASHINGTON -- A Wisconsin judge declared a state law requiring people to show photo ID in order to be allowed to vote unconstitutional on Monday, issuing a permanent injunction blocking the state from implementing the measure. “Anytime you take away restrictions, you make it possible for more people to vote. The key issue in voting-rights cases is what "standard of scrutiny" the Constitution requires for burdens on the right to vote -- that is, new rules that make it harder to cast a ballot without entirely banning any individual or group from voting. The General Assembly shall enact general laws governing the requirements of such photographic identification, which may include exceptions.”. A federal judge in Wisconsin struck down the state’s voter ID law. No, voter ID laws are not unconstitutional, and they serve an important way to prevent voter fraud. 5. It may also, according to some credible estimates, disfranchise as many as 9 percent of the state's eligible voters. "We will appeal.". Would you like to receive desktop browser notifications about breaking news and other major stories? As the legal maneuvers unfold, expect to hear critics decry North Carolina’s “unconstitutional voter ID.” This will represent imprecise shorthand for their argument that North Carolina has enacted an unconstitutional law while trying to implement voter ID. That’s the only available argument. "It is not clear whether the appellate courts will agree or not agree with this approach, which would seem to put a number of electoral processes which burden poor and minority voters up for possible VRA liability," Hasen wrote on his blog Wednesday afternoon. But this one could have even bigger implications if it stands. Liberals scream and cry about those laws being unconstitutional.
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