Americans have always been wary of losing their rights. Freedom is what makes America such a special place to live. Freedom is what makes people all over the world want to settle in our prodigious land. We had an eight year long war against Great Britain because Americans felt that Britain had begun to infringe on our rights. It seems like almost any time a new law is passed that affects everyone’s lives, we begin to question whether this law is constitutional. From the Civil Rights Act to gun control, people are passionate about their side of any change. A current example of this conflict is voter ID laws. In this essay, I will focus on the Texas voter ID laws, and I will discuss what limits the Constitution places on voter qualifications;
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Voter ID laws go all the way back to the 1950’s when South Carolina became the first state to require some form of identification in order to vote. The identification did not require a photo; it just had to have the voter’s name. In the next three decades Texas, Florida, and Alaska joined South Carolina in adding their own state voter ID laws. Then in 2004, Arizona became the first state to enact strict voter ID laws. If the voter did not have an ID that passed the state’s qualifications, then his or her ballot was not counted. Many said that this was unconstitutional. In 2005 when Illinois passed strict voter ID laws, they were taken to court in the case Crawford v. Marion County Election Board. In a 6-3 decision the court decided “that the photo I.D. requirement was closely related to Indiana’s’ legitimate state interests in preventing voter fraud. The slight burden the law imposed on voters’ rights did not outweigh these interests” (Roberts Court, 2008, “Crawford,” para. 3). This means that the strict voter ID laws in Texas, along with the eight other states that have strict voter ID laws, are all constitutional, but this does not stop some people from still challenging this law in court. On August 5, 2015, a federal appeals court said that this law went against the 1965 Voting Rights Act. There is a chance that this case will make it to the Supreme Court, but it is still being reviewed in …show more content…
Although they have some positive benefits like helping to prevent voter fraud, they also have some negative results. One of the biggest negative effects is that these laws have caused elections to have lower voter turnouts. Texas has historically had some of the lowest voter turnout numbers, and this law will only make those numbers worse. The University of Texas and Rice University conducted a study to find out just how much these laws affected voter turnout, and they revealed some interesting conclusions. The study found that "The most prominent effect of the law seemed to be to discourage voters who actually had one of the forms of photo ID, but due to misinformation or miscommunication believed they did not and did not go to vote" (Mark Jones, 2015, “Controversial,” para. 4). 5.8% of non-voters fell into this category, although only 2.7% of non-voters did not have the proper ID’s needed. Getting people to come out and vote is already a challenging task, and these voter ID laws only make our abysmal numbers even worse. I think that our numbers will continue to fall until our voter ID laws become less strict or
Voter ID laws go all the way back to the 1950’s when South Carolina became the first state to require some form of identification in order to vote. The identification did not require a photo; it just had to have the voter’s name. In the next three decades Texas, Florida, and Alaska joined South Carolina in adding their own state voter ID laws. Then in 2004, Arizona became the first state to enact strict voter ID laws. If the voter did not have an ID that passed the state’s qualifications, then his or her ballot was not counted. Many said that this was unconstitutional. In 2005 when Illinois passed strict voter ID laws, they were taken to court in the case Crawford v. Marion County Election Board. In a 6-3 decision the court decided “that the photo I.D. requirement was closely related to Indiana’s’ legitimate state interests in preventing voter fraud. The slight burden the law imposed on voters’ rights did not outweigh these interests” (Roberts Court, 2008, “Crawford,” para. 3). This means that the strict voter ID laws in Texas, along with the eight other states that have strict voter ID laws, are all constitutional, but this does not stop some people from still challenging this law in court. On August 5, 2015, a federal appeals court said that this law went against the 1965 Voting Rights Act. There is a chance that this case will make it to the Supreme Court, but it is still being reviewed in …show more content…
Although they have some positive benefits like helping to prevent voter fraud, they also have some negative results. One of the biggest negative effects is that these laws have caused elections to have lower voter turnouts. Texas has historically had some of the lowest voter turnout numbers, and this law will only make those numbers worse. The University of Texas and Rice University conducted a study to find out just how much these laws affected voter turnout, and they revealed some interesting conclusions. The study found that "The most prominent effect of the law seemed to be to discourage voters who actually had one of the forms of photo ID, but due to misinformation or miscommunication believed they did not and did not go to vote" (Mark Jones, 2015, “Controversial,” para. 4). 5.8% of non-voters fell into this category, although only 2.7% of non-voters did not have the proper ID’s needed. Getting people to come out and vote is already a challenging task, and these voter ID laws only make our abysmal numbers even worse. I think that our numbers will continue to fall until our voter ID laws become less strict or