Photo by David Sachs / SEIU
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Do Now
Should voters be required to show some form of identification when they show up to the polls?
Introduction
You have to show an ID at the airport. You have to show it to buy alcohol. So what’s the big deal about showing it to vote?
It’s a question repeatedly asked by supporters of state voter ID laws, who argue that showing identification at the polls is a way to prevent voter fraud. And the argument seems to have been effective: some form of voter ID is now required in more than 30 states around the country.
But opponents call this argument bogus. They say that the tiny number of actual voter fraud instances is statistically irrelevant, and that this stated concern is just being used as an excuse to disenfranchise large numbers of students and poor minority voters who are less likely to have government-issued IDs, especially photo IDs, and more likely to vote for Democrats. Opponents note that it’s no coincidence that these new ID laws have been approved, nearly unilaterally, by Republican-controlled state legislatures.
Most recently, the Supreme Court refused to block a Texas voter identification law just weeks before the upcoming November midterm election, overturning a lower federal court’s decision finding that the law was restrictive and unconstitutional. Texas’ new law, among the strictest photo ID rules in the country, will go into effect immediately. The lower court judge who wrote the original decision found that roughly 600,000 eligible voters, many of them black or Latino, could be turned away from the polls because they lack appropriate identification, according to the Associated Press.
Resource
New York Times video Elections 2012 | The Right to Vote – Electoral Dysfunction
In the first episode of an Op-Docs series called “Electoral Dysfunction,” the political humorist Mo Rocca explores a curious fact about the U.S. Constitution: why is there no universal right to vote?
To respond to the Do Now, you can comment below or tweet your response. Be sure to begin your tweet with @KQEDedspace and end it with #DoNowVote
For more info on how to use Twitter, click here.
We encourage students to reply to other people’s tweets to foster more of a conversation. Also, if students tweet their personal opinions, ask them to support their ideas with links to interesting/credible articles online (adding a nice research component) or retweet other people’s ideas that they agree/disagree/find amusing. We also value student-produced media linked to their tweets. You can visit our video tutorials that showcase how to use several web-based production tools. Of course, do as you can… and any contribution is most welcomed.
More Resources
NCLS resource Voter Identification Requirements | Voter Id Laws
The National Conference of State Legislators’ History of Voter ID webpage contains a chronology of voter ID legislation from 2000 to the present.
Brennan Center resource Student Voting Guide
As a student, you have a constitutional right to register and vote in the place you truly consider to be “home” — whether that’s your parents’ house, your apartment, or your dorm room. But before you make the important decision about where to vote, make sure you know the rules (and sometimes consequences) of registering to vote in that state.
United States Election Assistance Commission interactive map Contact Your State
Click on a state in the map or scroll down to the list of state links below to access state election Web sites, which include voter guides, registration information and deadlines, absentee and early voting dates, provisional voting information and polling place hours and locations.
