We recently did an episode on how some states are enacting laws to discourage and prevent
US citizens from voting. And one of those laws, we pointed out, requires people to present
a photo ID when they go to vote. And the comment section exploded. It was mainly people just
wanting to know why requiring ID was a bad thing. After all, you need it to do pretty
much everything else, so why not voting?
Well, almost 11% of the US voting population doesn't have a photo ID. That's 3.2 million
people. For me, that fact alone is enough to list voter ID requirements as laws that
stop people from voting.
But let's take a look at who those 3.2 million people without voter ID actually are. The
majority of them fall into four categories. Young adults, the elderly, minorities, and
the poor.
18 percent of all seniors and 25 percent of African-Americans don't have a picture ID.
If photo ID requirements were enacted in every US state, almost a fifth of the elderly population
and a full quarter of the African American population would not be able to vote.
Which begs the question, "why can't they just get ID's?"
To that, I'd say why can't we just not enact these laws? But I know that's not a satisfying
answer. So let's walk through it another way.
The people without IDs are the very same people that don't have driver's licenses. So, they
can't just drive on down to the DMV and pick up a photo ID card. A lot of them live in
rural areas that are nowhere near the closest DMV. Others may not have driver's licenses
because they can't afford a car. They also can't afford to lose a day of work at the
DMV, a place known primarily for wasting people's work days.
Plus, some states require a birth certificate to get a state-issued photo ID, while also
requiring a photo ID to obtain a birth certificate. It's a catch-22 that hurts the elderly, the
certificate.
to the polls vote. And THAT is the truly alarming thing about voter ID laws.
We're not talking about stopping people who don't vote from voting. We're talking about
stopping active voters from voting.
The elderly are the most consistent voters of any demographic. Minorities voted in the
2008 Presidential election at virtually the same rate as non-minorities. And that same
year, young people age 18 to 24, had the highest turnout for that age group since 1992.
So, is there an argument for requiring voter ID? The number one reason given for wanting
it, is to stop voter fraud.
Supporters of the law want everyone to show an ID so that people can't just walk in off
the street, say any name they want, and vote away. Which would be a good reason to want
voters to have ID, if that were happening. But it's not. In fact according to the Brennan
Center at NYU's School of Law, this type of voter fraud is less likely to happen than
death by lightning - and all claims of systematic voter fraud of this kind are totally false.
Obviously, we wanna keep our elections fair, so we shouldn't completely discount voter
fraud - but this new law - simply isn't a good way to do that.
To see our original episode on voter rights and the numerous ways politicians on both
side of the aisle are using them to disenfranchise voters, click here now. And remember we release
5 new videos every week, so please subscribe - and you can get em all right there in your
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