it's wilder

The Case For/Against Voter ID Cards

I don’t normally do political pieces. But sometimes I like to document my thinking and reasoning about a certain political idea so that I can refer back to it when debates arise. In this case, it’s about the idea of government issued voter registration cards.

I was at the cigar shop yesterday and two (white & old) lawyers were arguing with a (late-middle aged) black man about the need for government issued voter ID cards. They made a very compelling argument and the older black man had a hard time refuting a lot of them because on the surface, this is an idea that does seem logical. They posited that the government could issue these IDs from any public school around the country. And why wouldn’t any legal citizen use that opportunity to validate themselves in the eyes of the law. Especially when you have 2 years to register. Or in the case of Presidential elections, 4 years. That’s plenty of time to get your shit together, get your lazy ass over to a school and have them issue you an official photo ID. They even made exceptions for the poor by having the IDs issued for free. The cost of which would be enormous but that’s another discussion.

When asked about the reason for such ID cards, their only reason was that voter fraud was out of control. The only retort the elderly black man had for not wanting ID cards was general idea that elderly, poor, and minority groups are somehow disenfranchised under such a system. This is where my ears perked up. I listened pretty intently and took both sides in.

This morning, I took to the internet to learn more about each side. I couldn’t logically understand why anyone already without an ID card (driver’s license, student ID, passport, etc.) wouldn’t take the steps needed to ensure that they are who they say they are. What I found out was something else. A voter ID card is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. And if the problem doesn’t really exist, then why put people (in this case, mostly poor, elderly, and minority) through this exercise? And why should the government find a way to pay for this huge system?

From 2002 to 2007, the DOJ under President Bush, conducted a study of voter fraud cases. It only found that “about 120 people have been charged and 86 convicted…Many of those charged by the Justice Department appear to have mistakenly filled out registration forms or misunderstood eligibility rules, a review of court records and interviews with prosecutors and defense lawyers show.”*

Interesting.

But let’s say it was a problem. How would the solution of voter ID cards solve this problem? Well, the only problem a voter ID card would solve is one of voter impersonation. Except that voter impersonation is so rare, “…there are far more reports of UFO sightings”* than of voter impersonation.

So. If the problem of voter fraud is largely blown out of proportion and the solution of voter ID cards would only solve a tiny fraction of cases, is it really worth it to put all these people through the process of obtaining one? Is it worth the cost to the American taxpayer when there is no real value? If the answer is “no” to both of those questions, then in my mind, even the Democrats response that a voter ID card disenfranchises a vast majority of people* isn’t warranted because there is actually no problem that needs a response to begin with. But that, is also a different discussion.

Note: I’ve only cited a few sources here. If you have other, valid sources that state otherwise, let me know. But politicians spouting rhetoric isn’t a valid source.