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Oppose Voter ID Legislation: Annotated Bibliography

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Recommended: Voter ID LawsProject: Voter IDs: Yea or Nay

The articles, “Oppose Voter ID Legislation - Fact Sheet” published by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and “Voter ID laws are good protection against fraud” by Kris Kobach disagree on whether voter fraud is a big issue. The article “Oppose Voter ID Legislation - Fact Sheet” published by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argues many reasons of why we don’t need voter ID’s. This article believes that voter fraud is a very minor problem because it doesn’t happen often. It states, “There is no credible evidence that in-person impersonation voter fraud-- the only type of fraud that photo IDs could prevent - is even minor problem” (ACLU). This proves that voter fraud does not happen often which shows that we do not need the Voter Ids. It also proves that Voter Ids can only stop one form of voter fraud which …show more content…

One example, “341 felons in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area illegally voted in the 2008 election. Compared with 2.7 million votes cast in the state, 341 seems insignificant but after the recount of the U.S senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken, Franken’s margin of victory was only 312 votes. The illegal votes cast by felons were not discovered until after the recount, making 341 an awfully significant number” (Kobach). This shows that even though the number may be small it can still change the election in the opponent's favor. Another example is that 50 votes were illegally casted by citizens of Somalia, they all voted for J.J. Rizzo, he ended up winning by one vote. Once again, this shows that even though there are few voter fraud situations it can still change the winner of the election. Overall, Voter Ids were created to stop voter fraud, one side believes that voter fraud is not a problem because it does not happen often. The other side believes that Voter Fraud happens often so these Voter Ids could change the outcome of an

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794 Words | 4 Pages

Recently, state-issued photo ID has been required in order vote since the law passed in the Texas legislature. This law has caused controversy as it brings up the question over the state’s power in the regulation of elections. “While pending review within the judicial system, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Shelby County v. Holder, which effectively ended all pending litigation. As a result, voters are now required to present an approved form of photo identification in order to vote in all Texas Elections” (votetexas.gov). The U.S. Supreme Court struck down on Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in the Shelby County v. Holder case.

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1135 Words | 5 Pages

This data demonstrates the low chances of a third party candidate being able to gain any electoral votes. The system clearly disproportionately gives out electoral votes, making it especially difficult for third party candidates to win any elections. Additionally, in the 2000 presidential election, a third party candidate, Nader, went up against Gore and G.W. Bush. While Gore obtains 266 electoral votes, Bush receives 271, automatically making him the winner. On the other hand, the third party candidate, Nader, received a total of zero electoral votes, even though he gained 2,882,955 popular votes.

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1128 Words | 5 Pages

In 2008, the presidential election saw around 8 million voters in Texas come and cast a vote. As of 2012, the number decreased to around 7 million (TX Senate). Now it may not seem like that’s a lot but for something like an election, it could mean the difference of winning by a landslide or just a few

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169 Words | 1 Pages

The presidential election of 2000 between Bush and Gore is a prime example of the corruption in our current election system. The system in which the country divides into parties demonstrates how segregated the country remains. For example, Bush won the 2000 election by only 154 votes (1). With such a small difference it is only logical that there should be a recount, and when they decide not to count dimpled chads you can tell that they don't have any regard for voters intent, who the people want for president, rather they bias it into which party they associate with. The 2000 election was not a legitimate election at all.

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420 Words | 2 Pages

However, there are no guarantees to the positive affects of convenience voting (e.g. early voting backfires

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779 Words | 4 Pages

Now move forward to 1960 the progressive voters league started informing black people about political issues and they also encouraged blacks to vote. Go forward five years to 1965 the federal voting rights act is adopted in Texas which eliminated all local restrictions on voting and required federal marshals to monitor the election proceedings. This history of voter suppression is what played a major role in making the tactics that politician use today and what makes Texas suppression tactics the toughest among the other states. It also shows how far Texas voter suppression tactics go back in history and how racial discrimination was the main cause behind the suppression of other races from voting. Even today people say that voter id laws and voter suppression is way to discrimatory.

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426 Words | 2 Pages

Voter ID laws are two sided, but most Americans feel that it is necessary to prevent voter fraud. Republicans feel that an individual should already have a state ID because this is required by so many government agencies. Unfortunately, the Democrats are the ones to be most likely affected due to their voters’ economic status, disabilities and age. Whereas, Democrats believe that it is a tactic to defer their supporters from voting.

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608 Words | 3 Pages

Voter ID laws are meant to control cases of voter fraud according to Professor Justin Levitt, from Loyola Law School, discovered, “there were only 31 incidents of the type of voter fraud that could have been prevented by voter ID laws...”. Voters may think voter ID laws are an exaggeration, but it is not considering it secures every vote and verifies if the person is eligible to vote. Everyone is eligible to vote should have a form of ID since IDs are asked for throughout the day. Voter ID laws do not burden the minority for there are other ways of receiving an ID. Seniors, individual older than 60, receive a free ID at the DMV and it last much more longer.

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1258 Words | 6 Pages

Another distinction that must be made under the wide umbrella of “voter fraud” is the difference between malicious intent and mistakes. Many voters who mistakenly cast ballots are, in fact, citizens rendered ineligible to vote due to criminal conviction (CITE). Election officials, even with special training, still get the law wrong. Clearly, human error can bet attributed to many claims of voter fraud, and is the prime reason that voter fraud

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270 Words | 2 Pages

Although a copious amount of people claim that the election betwixt George W. Bush and Al Gore was candid, I have deduced that it in fact was illegitimate and that Al Gore should have won. For instance, in the film Recount it is announced that the machines increased Bush’s votes by three thousand votes and seized thousands of votes from Gore. Because the difference of votes was only one thousand seven hundred and eighty four and if those thousands were not affixed to Bush’s votes and deducted from Gore’s votes, Gore would have obtained the majority of the votes. In addition, people in Florida were perplexed by the voting ballots, they were design in a manner which the voters were left dumbfounded. Because of the perplexing format of the ballots

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291 Words | 2 Pages

“Now listen people, this is a street fight for the presidency of the United States” (James Baker). The 2000 election between Al Gore and George Bush was not only an intense one, but an illegitimate one. Numerous key factors affected this unlawful election’s outcome. Many laws were broken and many deceitful acts were committed, on some level, by both sides. Around 15,000 votes were taken from Gore throughout the course of this election.

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119 Words | 1 Pages

Voter fraud is the act of a voter not listening to the American policy “ one person one vote”, and votes more than once. People can commit this fraud by registering under the names of deceased citizens, voting without citizenship, registering in multiple locations, ineligible voting, and more (U.S News). Voter suppression is a variety of tactics used to decrease the number of voters who vote in a particular election (Ballotpedia). It can be used as a technique to convince people to not vote. According to Aclu.org ,voter suppression laws make it difficult for Americans to vote “ particularly black people, the elderly, students, and people with disabilities”.

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815 Words | 4 Pages

The main purpose of the voter ID law is to prevent voter fraud and it has yet to be a big issue. Since there has been no problems, I assume that there has been some sort of leeway happening in the registration process. One of the main forms of leeway could be the fact that we have the option of 7 different types of identification that could be presented in order to vote. And not only that, but we have the right to submit provisional votes as well until we show some sort of ID to match our registration

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683 Words | 3 Pages

One must be a United States citizen; a resident of the county where one submit the application; at least 18 years old on Election Day; not a convicted felon; and not been declared by a court exercising probate jurisdiction to be either totally mentally incapacitated or partially mentally incapacitated without the right to vote (Vote Texas). Even though these are very specific requirements, there have been times where people vote even if they do not meet them. In an effort to reduce voter fraud, Texas passed Senate Bill 14 that requires Texas’ voters show one of the following photo identifications on Election Day: Texas driver license issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), Texas Election Identification Certificate issued by DPS, Texas personal identification card issued by DPS, Texas concealed handgun license issued by DPS, United States military identification card containing the person’s photograph, United States citizenship certificate containing the person’s photograph, United States passport (Champagne and Harpham 98). In June 2013 the US Supreme Court ruled, in a 5-4 decision, striking down the formula for determining the states that were covered under section 5 preclearance condition contained in The Voting Rights Act.

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895 Words | 4 Pages

If voters have doubts whether their votes are counted correctly or the process was not impartial then they might feel that the results do not match their desires. The legitimacy of those who are elected weakens when these doubts arise, both of the individual representatives as that of the parliament as a whole. This could ultimately undermine the strengths of the democratic process and institutions in a country. (Lehoucq 2002). Also, voter trust in elections is not the same as support for government in a democracy as that is known as political trust.

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