Last week, Mr. Winford wrote an opinion column titled, “Voter ID Just Makes Sense.” I want to take the opportunity this week to set the record straight on voter identification laws.
To begin with, it is important to be clear on the reason behind the Justice Department’s suit against the State of North Carolina. According to Attorney General Eric Holder, the suit seeks to challenge the state’s new voting law, which includes “provisions that will significantly reduce early voting days; eliminate same-day registration during early voting; impose a restrictive photo identification requirement for in-person voting; and prohibit the counting of otherwise legitimate provisional ballots that are mistakenly cast in the right county, but in the wrong precinct.”
With this in mind, let’s examine Mr. Winford’s argument that photo ID laws are good public policy.
Mr. Winford begins with the common argument that because photo ID is required for other aspects of life, it should be necessary to vote. He claims that individuals must present photo identification to “apply for and receive welfare.” He does not specify to which government assistance program he is referring — instead relying on the ambiguous term, “welfare” — but his assertion proves false in most cases.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) does not require those seeking benefits to show a photo ID in any state. In Mississippi, specifically, an individual is not required to have a photo ID to receive unemployment benefits or Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program benefits.
What about the activities outside of welfare benefits? Unfortunately, photo ID is not necessary to purchase a firearm. Private gun sales can be conducted without any kind of background check. Mr. Winford correctly claims that photo ID is needed to board an airplane. While this is true, the individuals who are most likely to be harmed by restrictive voting laws often do not have the resources to even purchase airplane tickets.
The final, and perhaps most significant, activity that Mr. Winford argues requires a photo ID is registering to vote. A quick check with the Mississippi Department of Motor Vehicles, which handles voter registration, disproves this assertion. The necessity of photo ID in daily activities seems to be overstated.
Next, Mr. Winford casts doubt on the claim that photo ID laws disproportionately affect minorities and impoverished individuals. What does the research say? The Brennan Center for Justice found that 11 percent of U.S. citizens do not have government-issued photo IDs. The Advancement Project reported that one in three registered voters who lack identification are African-American. A study conducted by faculty from the University of Washington, University of California and University of New Mexico found that voter ID laws will disproportionately affect racial minorities and individuals who are socioeconomically disadvantaged.
With clear evidence that photo ID laws disenfranchise certain voters, there must be a very compelling reason for promoting these policies. Mr. Winford asserts that we must “safeguard the process.”
Safeguard the process from what exactly?
Mr. Winford mentions fraud. It is true that photo ID could prevent cases of people impersonating others to vote — but how often does that actually happen? According to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, “it is more likely that an individual will be struck by lightning than that he will impersonate another voter at the polls.”
If photo ID laws actually corrected a problem, then it would be worth examining these policies more closely. But the fact is that photo ID laws are a form of voter suppression. These laws eerily resemble other forms of voter suppression — such as poll taxes and literacy tests — in our country’s not-so-distant past.
Encouraging voter participation is crucial to promoting a healthy democracy. We must continue to be wary of any law that seeks to limit — rather than expand — access to voting. It is actions like the lawsuit by the Justice Department that are the true safeguards of the American democracy, as they seek to ensure that every American has the ability to exercise one of the most important rights granted to citizens: the right to vote.
Christine Dickason is a junior public policy leadership major from Collierville, Tenn.
