Voter ID laws in many states disenfranchise African-American, other minority citizens

“Today it’s unbelievable that there are Republican officials trying to stop some people from voting,” Congressman John Lewis shouted to the packed house at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. The “some people” Lewis was eluding too are the minority population.

New legislation regarding voter requirements will cause a new challenge for minority groups when heading to the polls this November. Several states will require registered voters to have state-issued IDs in order to cast their ballot: Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.

According to NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice, 25 percent of African-American voting-aged citizens have no current government-issued photo ID, at least 15 percent of voting-aged American citizens earning less than $35,000 per year do not have a valid government-issued photo ID, and as many as 18 percent of citizens aged 18-24 do not have photo ID with current address and name.

Five million potential voters do not have the state-issued ID that is required of them to vote in this year’s elections. This is the first time that several states have adopted voter ID bills, which disenfranchises voters — specifically African-Americans and other minorities — such as students and low-income people.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the purpose of these new voter ID laws are to verify identity at polling centers to prevent voter fraud, but there isn’t substantial evidence that voter fraud by individual voters is an issue on Election Day.

“Many of the claims of voter fraud amount to a great deal of smoke without much fire. The allegations simply do not pan out,” Justin Levitt wrote in a Brennan Center for Justice publication.

Moreover, these new voter ID laws will affect the youth vote. Lawmakers in Wisconsin and several other states have passed legislation only allowing students to cast their vote if their IDs include a current address, birth date, signature and two-year expiration date — requirements that very few university IDs in the state currently meet. Some colleges have paid for the new student IDs while others have charged students to obtain new student IDs that meet state requirements.

Syracuse University student Stephanie Navarrete says, “Key swing states and states that are starting to lean Democratic are the states that Republicans are passing these new laws, attempting to set their selves up for victory on Election Day.”

Visit www.ncsl.org for a complete listing of each state’s requirements.

On behalf of National Association of Black Journalists,

Kelvin Sherman