Voter ID Laws and “The Assault on Voter Rights”

by walterm on December 27, 2011

It seems with each passing day I hear an even more ridiculous charge of why the current wave of state voter initiatives is an assault on voter rights. I have an Obama-loving, Afro-centric, liberal progressive university professor on Facebook that I correspond with who is absolutely positive that the Voter ID laws are specifically intended to discriminate against blacks, who overwhelmingly voted for Obama and will do so again at the next opportunity in November of 2012.  He is goaded on by none other than the NAACP, who in a recent seventy-two page report titled Defending Democrary: Confronting Modern Barriers to Voting Rights in America, charged that this wave of legislative measures to curb voter fraud is “designed to block access to the polls for voters of color.” In their view, a “coordinated and comprehensive assault” has been launched against voting rights, which is of “grave concern” to them. They see the laws as disproportionately suppressing the turnout of “voters of color,” particularly the young, poor and elderly. The New York Times has also piled on that these initiatives discriminate against students, but I will focus this post on the wacky world of the NAACP, and not the even wackier world of the New York Times.

After perusing seventy-two pages of abject whining and specious historical comparisons, I have a hard time understanding how these various initiatives can possibly target a specific group of people when none actually target any specific groups. These laws apply to everyone within each individual state, so everyone is playing by the same rules where there is no distinction of persons. Since the vast majority of black Americans are legal citizens (and no, I’m not using the politically correct term “African-Americans” because the vast majority of blacks are not from Africa and have never even been to Africa), I fail to see how the laws disproportionately impact blacks (let alone other voters of color), unless they’re doing something somehow different from every other American. According to the report, blacks are affected by the following so-called “restrictive measures” (among others):

  • Requiring government-issued photo identification
  • Tightening requirements for voter registration or imposing restrictions on persons who conduct voter registration drives
  • Excluding convicted felons from voting
  • Reducing the opportunity to vote early or by absentee ballot

Now let me ask the obvious. Don’t blacks have access to government-issued identification just like every other American? Don’t blacks have driver licenses just like everyone else? If anything, this lengthy diatribe only suggests, and I believe wrongly, that blacks aren’t responsible enough to gain the proper identification if they don’t have it, and register to vote in a timely manner as everyone else. The report appeals to the history of the Voter Rights Act as if these various state initiatives trample all over it in an attempt to restrict the rights of voters of color, which they don’t. The truth is the NAACP continues to fight battles of long ago that don’t apply now. There is no manner in which blacks or any other people of color who are lawful citizens are unable to participate equally in the political process. Yet recall when voters were intimidated by Black Panthers in front of a polling station in Philadelphia during the 2008 elections, some of whom turned away, the NAACP was silent. As we know, the Justice Department refused to prosecute the case, but is now pursuing the state of South Carolina for its new voter law which simply requires voters to show photo identification. Oh, the horror.

Regarding these other “restrictions,” let’s first look at voter registration.  The state of Florida has a new law that includes a requirement to turn in registration forms within 48 hours instead of 10 days. In Texas, there is now the requirement that to be a volunteer deputy registrar, one must be a registered voter in Texas. I wish I could grasp how this specifically affects people of color, but perhaps I’m not that creative. In Florida and Iowa, executive orders allowing felons who had finished serving their sentences to receive automatic restoration of their rights to vote were reversed, and apparently this affects people of color because they suffer disproportional rates of criminal convictions and incarceration. Someone please tell me they’re kidding, because since there are more white people in sheer numbers, far more white votes will be impacted. In any event, I think the NAACP would do better to focus its efforts on lowering the conviction and incarceration rate for people of color instead of chasing yesterday’s struggles. Finally, several states enacted bills that reduce early voting, such as the reduction from a 14 day to 8 day period for early voting in Florida. Since blacks are much more likely to take advantage of early voting, the argument is they will be “substantially and unduly” burdened. Honestly, I’m confident blacks can delay their voting gratification for six days. These are adults after all, even though the NAACP refuses to give them that much credit.

In my view, the real crime here is being perpetrated by the NAACP and other liberal rabble rousers who argue falsely that there is a “war on voters.” These brave legislators want to root out voter fraud to ensure that only duly registered citizens can vote. The initiatives they fight against bring much needed integrity to the voting process as there is a good deal of voter fraud around the country evidenced in the 2008 election (remember ACORN?). We can only dream of such an initiative in California, where we have a serious problem with voter fraud, particularly within the illegal immigrant community. So in closing, for all the NAACP’s talk about the Voter Rights Act and past civil rights abuses, they effectively don’t advocate for equality but special treatment for people of color because apparently they feel this community is incapable of following the rules like everyone else. This is nothing more than appeasement and the bigotry of low expectations for a group of people who should be responsible, conscientious adults that take full part in the political process of their own accord.

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