Voting Rights

9 Replies to “Voting Rights”

1. I believe the timing of this legislature is not random by any means. The first thing that comes to mind is President Trump’s claim that the reason he lost the popular vote is because many undocumented immigrants illegally voted in the election. While this was not proven, it was still a major headline in the weeks following the election, and I believe this has sparked the conversation for reform when it comes to proof of citizenship prior to voting.
   While I agree that citizens of the U.S should be the ones partaking in elections, I believe the legislature Virginia is proposing will bring more problems rather than solving the issue. The fact that one may need both a birth certificate and a passport will lead to fewer turnout at the polls due to the inconvenience. I believe I problem we already face is lack of turnout on election day, and to put another obstacle in the way of people and the booths is not a good idea. I do believe some reform is necessary, but I think the lawmakers need to come up with a better plan to prove identity to ensure the voting process is as convenient as possible.

2. This new legislation created by the state of Virginia is a direct result of Donald Trump’s election and expected new policies against immigration. Donald Trump has publicly spoken out about voter fraud, as he tried to convince people that he secretly won the popular vote if you exclude the millions of illegally casted ballots. However, there is no substantial proof to this conspiracy whatsoever. Trump has said between 3 million and 5 million illegal ballots were cast, costing him the popular vote. In December, a federal appeals court upheld Virginia’s voting rules requiring residents to present photo ID to cast ballots. The Virginia House Speaker William J Howell said in a statement, “Today’s ruling is a victory for a common-sense law that protects the integrity of Virginia’s elections.” I believe that this is an effort directly correlated to Trump’s comments and actions against immigration. In the long term, I think this policy will result in a weaker turnout at the polls. The opportunity cost of missing work to go and vote already strays people away from voting, so adding extra restrictions and obstacles for voters to hurdle will ultimately result in much lower turnout than we already see. I don’t believe this is a necessary action for the state of Virginia to take as it will end up doing more harm than good.

3. As explained in Racism Without Racists, voter suppression is not new in the slightest. Ever since people of color have been given the right to vote, there has been a strategic effort to disenfranchise these people through various efforts such as, “racial gerrymandering, multimember legislative districts, election run-offs, the annexation of predominantly white areas, at-large elections…” (Bonilla-Silva, 49). Similarly, right-wingers claiming voter fraud is not new either. According to Bonilla-Silva, trying to implement voter ID laws is similar to poll taxes and literacy tests. Therefore, this has to do with the President perpetuating the idea that he only lost the popular vote because of unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. No, it’s not necessary for people to need birth certificates and passports. More than being unnecessary, it’s also wrong. As Ross and Sean have mentioned, voting is already harder than it needs to be and voter suppression is still a problem that these suggestions would simply be compounding. Although voter-suppression is often targeted towards African-American communities, with so much attention on undocumented immigrants, they are also a target of this suggested legislation. Voting is a right, and we should be trying to make things easier rather than trying to only illuminate some people’s voices.

4. I agree with the previous comments in believing that this new law is a result of Trump’s claims that he lost the popular vote due to millions of illegal votes. Despite not being proven, Trump’s claims have caused widespread concern over voter fraud. This law is Virginia’s response to Trump’s claims by taking preventative measures towards voter fraud. I believe that this law is unnecessary and will cause a decrease in voter turnout, especially within minority communities. Requiring a passport or birth certificate is taking Virginia’s voter ID laws to an extreme. Minorities are already affected by voter ID laws because they are less likely than whites to have the required identification. By adding a birth certificate and a passport requirement, minority voter turnout will significantly decrease. Establishing this law will suppress the minority voice by making it harder for them to vote.

5. The bill put forth by the Virginia legislature to erect further barriers to voting is consistent with the narrative that our elections were riddled with cases of voter fraud. This narrative– albeit, based on completely false claims– has been pushed on the American public by the President and his White House administration. The President is using the bully pulpit to whip up public support for constitutionally-questionable provisions to voting. In order to achieve this, the President is using xenophobic language to rationalize his false claims that 3 to 5 million people voted in the election. By constantly repeating these claims and doubling-down on them without evidence, legislators will be able to put in place more stringent voter id requirements. These efforts are a danger to our democracy because voter participation remains a hallmark of our democracy– in-fact, in response to such low voter turnout in the last election, logically it would seem that the barriers to voting would need to be reduced. The saying goes that democrats win when voters turn out and it is widely known that minorities tend to vote for democrats. Alas, it is not surprising that conservative legislators would put in place racist voter id laws to secure their own constituencies.

6. Requiring proof of citizenship to vote is simply another form of voter discrimination. This push follows the momentum of President Trump who cited voter fraud as a large percentage of votes against him in the election. These claims are unfounded and based on many reputable sources, voter fraud has a trifling effect on elections. While these claims are not supported by statistics, the Republican Party has long pushed for Voter ID laws in their agenda. Similarly to gerrymandering, Voter IDs prevent lower income and often minority voters from gaining access to polls. As this demographic is statistically less likely to have such identification and generally vote for Democrat candidates, legislation like this benefits the Republican Party. They have created a false paranoia (like other issues) that voter fraud is a bigger problem then it is to prop up this perception and incorrect need. Statistics show how minuscule of an effect voter fraud has and this is completely unnecessary. Implementing such requirement impedes on a large demographic ability to vote, a group of people that already has low turnout rates.

7. Requiring voters to present a passport and birth certificate in order to vote would be a clear attempt to limit voting rights. I do not own a passport, and I am sure that many poor minorities who have not had the opportunity to travel outside the country do not have one either. This law would substantially decrease voter turnout because acquiring a passport would be a huge obstacle. It is a long process to acquire a passport and it can cost over $100 to get one, which would be way too much money for poor people to afford just to be able to go and vote. Additionally, not everyone has their birth certificate readily available at home. For example, it could be stored in a safe in a bank, and many people would not have the time to leave work and go through the trouble of acquiring it so they can vote. This law would cause a drastic decrease in voter turnout, especially for poor minorities who would have more difficulty getting the required documents. This law would also be superfluous, because for a person to register to vote, they already have to be a citizen. To have to prove their citizenship with documents when they show up to vote would be redundant. It is likely that this law is a response to Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated assertion that the election was fraught with voter fraud. However, Republican’s efforts to suppress voters are nothing new. Virginia has a conservative General Assembly right now, so it is likely that they may have wanted to present a voter suppression law anyway, but that Trump’s rhetoric emboldened them to move forward with it. This law would do nothing to actually prevent voter fraud, but would actually prevent qualified voters from being able to exercise their right to vote. This law is the newest attack on voting rights, particularly to limit the turnout of people of color. Our nation has a long history of trying to prevent black people from voting, but this proposal and others like it, such as the photo ID law, are just new forms of voter suppression masked under the guise of protecting our elections from fraud.

8. The Virginia Legislature states that these new requirements are being established to protect the integrity of the electoral process. However, these restrictions, that are being by a majority Republican legislature, will affect the Democratic constituency heavily. Due to the continued dismantlement of the Voting Rights Act, states with voter discrimination history no longer have to submit voting changes for federal approval. Consequently, these new voting restrictions, that I believe are inherently unequal, will indirectly secure the majority for Republicans through every election. I do believe in the integrity of elections but I don’t believe the state should put requirements in place that will directly affect one political party’s constituency.

9. I definitely agree with previous comments that this law is connected to and supported by the environment created by Trump’s statements which are not based on any proofs or statistics. I also agree that it’s clear that any kind of voting rights restrictions and decreasing turnout (especially by minorities) is something which Republicans profit from and I believe this is the main reason why they try to pass this bill and similar ones. The sad thing here is, that politicians just misuse the situation of minorities (let’s say in terms of economic status) and make it even worse by harming even their political rights. If there was no correlation between race/immigration status/ethnicity etc. and economic status it would not be possible.
   However, I read about similar cases of different states making it harder to vote (affecting mainly minorities because of their economic status) even before Trump statements and presidency. Regardless of Trump presidency and existence, it favors Republicans who control most of state politics.
   Anyway, I feel, I will have to annoy you with the European perspective again. Although in Europe we study the US as a significant, important and unique country in the world and we know many things about US political system and politics, there are quite a lot of points when even experts say: It is hard to say, this issue is different in every state of the union. And thus we do not really know much about it.
   One of these issues is the very case of registration of voters and things people have to do in order to vote. In Czech Republic and other European countries every citizen has their national ID card (including a photo, by the way), in Czech actually called rather “Citizen ID”, and it is not hard for anybody to get one (even for instance for homeless people), it is rather the duty of state to provide everybody with one and obligation for citizens to have one. Therefore it is not a big deal when by voting everybody has to proof their citizenship with either national ID or passport (the only alternative option, but usually only people who want to travel outside the EU have a passport). Honestly, I cannot imagine an election where not everybody had to proof their identity (that requires even photos, because otherwise someone else could vote in my name), citizenship and age (=right to vote). Otherwise how could we ensure equal vote to every citizen?
   So to be honest, I do not really understand how this actually works in the US. Having birth certificate and passport seems clearly to be excessive and I am aware of the effects on minorities’ turnout going hand in hand with raising requirements on proving identity and citizenship, which is terrible. Nevertheless, according to Virginia Government it is possible to vote with a Virginian university ID in Virginia… I hope, it is not possible for me to grab my Spider Card, register as a voter and vote here, since as a non-citizen I should not have the right.

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