Photo Voting Laws Essay

The Detrimental Effects of Photo Voter Regulations Voting is an important process to democracy and the American people. It allows American citizens to put who they want into office and to vote on amendments and state laws. Voting is also considered a right in the country and a freedom that we should always have, regardless of financial situation and race. Some states, however, have begun to introduce new voting laws into their state requiring the voter to have photo identification to vote. It is said to prevent fraud and make the voting process more trustable. Realistically, these laws cause voter suppression, obstacles, and prevent little to no fraud. Voter ID laws are unnecessary and costly for the American people. Voter suppression is a huge problem targeting the elderly, disabled, students, black people, and Latinos all over America. Photo identification laws make it nearly impossible for these groups to vote, due to them not having a driver’s license, which could have been taken as they are

Dead voting, vote-buying, felon voters, and voter impersonation are all examples of voter fraud. Requiring voters to have voter IDs, however, only gets rid of voter impersonation, which can be an issue in an election. There are few cases of voter impersonation due to the penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Therefore, not a lot of voters will fraudulently vote because the risk of getting caught is too high for them to vote under another persons’ identity. So in hindsight, putting voter photo ID laws into play does not stop a lot of voter fraud. In fact, from 2000 to 2014 only thirty-one cases of voter fraud by impersonation were found out of the one billion ballots that were cast. This is a small percentage of votes, and only few of those were from impersonation. In conclusion, photo voter identification requirements do not stop enough cases of fraud to be put into