The Pros And Cons Of Voter Identification Laws

Voter ID laws have recently become a major topic of discussion and debate in American politics. The past ten years has led to an increase in the adoption of these laws and they have a considerable effect on who votes, turnout of the voters, and the combining factors that lead up to who is elected. Arguments include that voter ID laws can be used for a party’s benefit and another party’s weakness, or even directly affecting citizens who vote or wish to vote. North Carolina and Texas are examples of two states that have enacted Voter ID laws and these states exemplify how the laws may somehow attribute to voting outcomes.
North Carolina enacted their first set of voter ID laws in 2013. (National Conference 2016). Since that time, these laws

The law was enacted in 2013 and has also been debated up until 2016 (National Conference 2016). For a vote to count, the voter needs to have a photo ID, not expired, with intense processes set in place to go through if a photo ID is not present (Texas Secretary of State 2012). Those with disabilities, religious impediments, or natural disaster occurrences have to get an affidavit approved by the government (Texas Secretary of State 2012). This is known to take up a decent amount of time but it has to occur before a vote can be counted. Compared to non-strict states or somewhat strict states like North Carolina, Texas has more barriers in order for a vote to count. North Carolina and Texas both require photo identification. North Carolina’s include a drivers license or permit, veterans card, passport, United States military card, tribal card, or an out of state license (Acceptable Forms of Voter ID 2016). Other ID’s accepted are a religious declaration, birth date, last four numbers of a social security card, a voter registration card, or a document with their current name and address; although, only a provisional ballot will be accepted until identity is approved (Acceptable Forms of Voter ID

Historically, there has been many examples of factors influencing voting including poll taxes and literacy tests which made the poor and non educated have a much harder, argumentatively impossible, time voting (Hershey 2009). Those barriers were removed by court legislations and today voting identification laws are what may possibly be affecting voter turnout. The low educated and low-income groups of society have a lower turnout because of these types of laws (Hershey 2009). When looking at the majority of that certain population, it is primarily minorities. It is difficult to register or even get to a polling place, which leads to their absence of appearing to vote. The argument against non-strict identification is that a strict process limits the issue of voting fraud, but if several groups of demographics have an insanely hard time acquiring this type of identification, it is taking away their right to vote (Ansolabehere 2009). It normally costs money to get a new ID or it may be difficult to find a way to get a photo identification card, such as no transportation, and these factors then make it impossible to