Voter Id System Pros And Cons

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The election of 2000 marked the beginning of many changes to election administration standards. The election of 2000 displayed the flaws of the voting system. The current voting system had a provision which required that voters present a form of ID when casting a ballot. This requirement had both positive and negative consequences. On one hand, the ID requirement insured credibility to the ballot, but on the other hand, the ID requirement deterred certain voters away from the ballot. Many political analysts, suggested that the election of Bush v. Gore could have been decided by voter who were deterred because of the voter ID requirements.
Once President Bush was elected, many steps were taken to insure the creditability of the voting system. One of …show more content…

The state of Indiana has four requirements: (1) has a photo of the voter, (2) contains an expiration date that is current, (3) is issued by the State of Indiana, and (4) has the full legal name of the voter that matches the voter registration records (Barreto, Nuno and Sanchez 112). Recently, the United States Supreme Court has decided a case regarding the state’s voter ID laws. The case of Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (2008) challenged the constitutionality of voter ID laws in the state of Indiana, which requires registered voters to provide a government issued photo ID (Segal 657). The United States Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s photo ID law (Tokaji 164). The Court ruled, “Indiana’s interest in enacting the law justified the minimal burdens the law imposed on voters” (McGuane 713). According to Justice David Souter, “Indiana’s ‘Voter ID Law’ threatens to impose nontrivial burdens on the voting rights of tens of thousands of State’s citizens, and a significant percentage of those individuals are likely to be deterred from voting.” As Justice Souter mentioned, voter ID laws have a disproportionate effect on voter turnout and the