As the general elections approach in California, it is vital that citizens are able to express their opinions on political issues. Over the past months, there has been a heated controversy around one of the main rights that is responsible for maintaining democracy in the United States: voting. This fundamental right has been extended to several groups, including African Americans and women, at an expensive cost of American lives. In addition, so much time has been devoted to securing this right that it is absolutely necessary citizens have equal access to it. Although the United States has gone a long way from overtly excluding certain groups the right to vote, citizens still continue to be denied this fundamental right. In today’s day in …show more content…
Michael D. Gilbert, professor at the University Of Virginia School Of Law, has researched and analyzed the effectiveness of voter fraud extensively in his scholarly article “The Problem of Voter Fraud.” In his article, he asserts that in-person impersonation fraud in elections is a rare occurrence and that fraudsters run an enormous risk in exchange for a single vote for their candidate. In addition, Gilbert argues that in order for voter fraud to sway an election, the delinquents need to carefully orchestrate and executed several fraudulent votes to have an effect on the election. Gilbert explains, “For in-person impersonation fraud to make a difference in such cases, it must be widespread.”(Gilbert 765) In reality, voter identification laws combat fraud that rarely ever happens. For example, the amount of fraudulent votes combated by voter identification in the State of Texas is miniscule. According to Fernandez and Wise, "A review of some 12- fraud charges in Texas between 2000 and 2015, about eight cases a year turned up"(Fernandez, Wines).Voter identification laws are set up to help combat fraud that happens infrequently and does not have the ability to sway elections. Essentially, voter identification laws are not effective at combating voter fraud and are actually utilized as a political …show more content…
In Texas, there are more than 600,000 people who are eligible to vote but have no acceptable form of identification (Fernandez, Wise). Texas first implemented their photo identification laws in 2013 and since then voter turn-out has been reduced and elections have been swayed. Take Mr. Pete Gallegos, for example, who attempted to regain his congressional seat but narrowly lost in 2014 to republican Will Hurd due to voter identification laws enforced in the state of Texas. Ian Millhiser, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, covers Gallegos’ narrow loss in his article, “Study Reveals the True Scope of Voter Disenfranchisement in Texas.” Millhiser asserts that a large part of Gallegos’ loss in 2014was due to the implementation of strict voter identification laws that discouraged democratic constituencies from voting. Millhiser explains, “Five times as many non-voters who listed the photo ID law as the principal reason they did not participate would have voted for Gallegos rather than for Hurd” (Millhiser). Gallegos was defeated by a mere 2,400 votes in the general elections of 2014. The effects that voter identification laws have on elections are clear and it is absolutely vital that California withdraws from implementing these laws to avoid faulty
The voter ID issue starts with certain laws that, in the US, require that a person show a form of official ID before they are allowed to register to vote. This issue has split both Republicans and Democrats. According to Kenneth Jost, “republicans say [voter-ID laws] are needed to prevent fraud and protect the integrity of elections. Democrats say the laws are not needed and are being pushed in order to reduce voting among groups that skew Democratic in elections especially Latinos and African Americans” (Jost, p. 171). Both of these perspectives are valid, and with an open mind, can both sides have important points about the validity and inclusion of elections. On one hand, it is crucial to prevent fraud and keep the elections free of error, otherwise the outcome could be an unfair ruling. On the other side of the argument, voter-ID laws can cause discrimination and prevent people from voting, also
John Adams once said "You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." For many generations, our ancestors have fought for the right to vote. It started with the Civil Rights Act in 1964 which made it mandatory that white schools integrate black children into their institutions. The outcome of the 1964 election was a landslide, favoring the democrats, which broached the issue of civil rights legislation. In 1964 “only 7% of eligible black citizens in Mississippi were registered; in Alabama the figure was 20% (Kernell, et. al 2014, 162). The low voter turnout rate was because people of color were required to take a literacy test. This all changed when President Johnson
Today, the citizens of the United States must push Congress to formulate an oversight measure to fix voter disenfranchisement. By itself, Supreme Court Ruling Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder does minimal damage to the voting process of the United States. The court ruled discriminatory practices of district actions half a century old unconstitutional, but left a responsibility for Congress to modernize the Voting Rights Act, to ensure that no district nor individual is discriminated against. Given the history of the United States’s voter suppression and the original need for the Voting Rights Act, a new, modern voter equality policy is of dire importance.
Voting is one of the citizens’ rights living in a country. In the past, not everyone can vote. Voting used to be for only white American men. However, our ancestors fought for that rights. Eventually, any American who are older than eighteen can vote, despite their race or gender. In addition, voter turnout is used to keep track of the voting. It is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election. Unfortunately, the voter turnout has been decreasing over time, and it means that there are less and fewer people who actually show up and vote. This essay will discuss the voter turnout in Harris County, Texas.
Hasen, Richard. "Voter Suppression's New Pretext." the New York Times 16 November 2013: A- 19. Print.
A compulsory voting system similar to the one used in Australia is not a system Canada should implement. Compulsory voting in the context of a democratic society can be a misleading term (Lever, 2010). Canada practices the secret ballot process in voting, and so it is impossible to verify if someone has cast a legally valid ballot. If countries have a singular goal of simply increasing voter turnout, compulsory voting could remedy this problem and it should be more accurately defined as being compulsory voter turnout (Lever, 2010). The belief that compulsory voting inherently improves democracy is misleading (Lever, 2010). Canada should not force its citizen’s to vote because other then increasing voter turnout, compulsory voting would infringe on the right of the voter to not vote, it would not lead to a more informed or engaged population, the legitimacy of government would suffer, and the resources required to implement and maintain the compulsory voting system would be extremely costly to the federal government.
The new law has seen multiple, willing and able, voters turned away at the polling station for unacceptable or expired photo IDs. It also turns away people low on income, mainly because of the cost of photo IDs or the cost to replace vital documents, like birth certificates. With the implication of the new voter ID law, it is certain that it will have an implication on voter turnouts at the polls, mainly seen by minority and elderly voters. Those, like justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, prove that the new voter ID law has very lasting and unfair effects on voters who are deemed “unfavorable.” Even a U.S. district judge in Corpus Christi ruled that the law “constitutes an unconstitutional poll tax” and “has an impermissible discriminatory effect against Hispanics and African-Americans, and was imposed with an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose.” African-Americans and Latinos are more likely to lack appropriate photo IDs, disenfranchising approximately 600,000 voters. Even if the state offers a free photo ID, these types voters, some of who are in the low-income tax bracket, may not be able to get their hands on necessary documents, such as a birth certificate which cost around $23, to obtain one. The new ID laws can prove to be a large hurdle for multiple types of people, causing a lot of stress to people who just want to perform their civic
Through this legislation, minorities, especially African Americans, were able to vote freely. Racial discrimination diminished away as the decades passed by. But racial discrimination did not fully disappear. In the Supreme Court case Shelby v. Holder (2013), Section IV(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been deemed unconstitutional because it is “based on 40 year-old facts” (Lecture September 29). Since the ruling, Supreme Court cases, such as Evenwel v. Abbott (2015-2016) and North Carolina N.A.A.C.P. v. McCrory (2013-2014), has been stirring up causing a change on voting in America.
The wave of new voting restrictions passed around the country, mostly by Republicans, after their victories in the 2010 elections. Supporters of the law argue that such restrictions are necessary to prevent fraud. On the other hand, voting law opponents contend these laws disproportionately affect elderly, minority and low-income groups that tend to vote Democratic. Obtaining photo ID can be costly and burdensome because photo ID laws create a new "financial barrier to the ballot box”. It would have prevented hundreds of thousands of Hispanic voters from the polls just because they lack a state-issued photo ID.
Why We Need Voter ID Laws There have been several occasions throughout America’s history where voter fraud has changed the outcome of an election. For example, “a 2010 Kansas election ended with a one vote margin where 50 of the winning votes were cast illegally by citizens of Somalia (Hans Von Spankovsky).” Another example is when “a 1996 congressional race in California was almost overturned by hundreds of votes cast illegally by noncitizens (Hans Von Spankovsky).” Voter ID laws are a sensible precaution to voting.
Voter ID laws in the United States have begun to create controversy since the beginning of its adaptations in the early 2000’s. Voter ID laws in the United States is a law that requires U.S. citizens to have a special form of identification in order to vote in an election. The idea with Voter ID laws is that the state must make sure that the laws do not pose any sort of burden on the voters. These laws have been proposed in order to stop voting fraud. However, the institution of Voter ID laws have made trouble in states, including Texas, regarding to the various amount of identification requirements needed.
IDs as a valid form of identification, nor can out of state students vote without a valid
The 2016 election will be hit with numerous voting restrictive laws making it harder to vote for the general populous. There are 31 states that enforce government identification cards prior to voting. Around 11% percent of people able to vote don 't have a government identification card according to Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge. That 's around 35 million people unable to vote due to the enforcement of government identification cards. These people include and are not exclusive to the elderly not driving any more, people without permanent addresses, and transgender who have non matching gender to their identification cards. Of those 31 states that enforce government identification cards prior to voting, 8 states require strict photo identification. It is estimated that at least 16 million people able to vote do not have eligible government photo identification cards, according to the brennancenter. Texas alone has 600,000 people that do not fit this category. The general populous has taken a hit due to votin...
In order to completely understand how far society has come and the amount of work that still must be done, in regards to being able to exercise our voting rights, we must first understand some of the voting barriers that minorities had to face in the past. It was not until 1870 that the 15th amendment was passed, declaring it unconstitutional for an individual to be denied the right to vote based on their color, race or previous condition of servitude. However, the 15th amendment only applied to male individuals, it did not guarantee the right for women to vote. Instead female voters had to wait an additional fifty years until they were granted the privilege to vote. In 1920, the 19th amendment was finally passed, stating that regardless of gender every American citizen had the right to vote.
One Republican who is a member of the House of Representatives from Wisconsin’s 6th congressional district, Glenn Grothman, during the campaign admitted during an interview that the laws did help make a difference. On the CNN website, Grothman said, ‘…now we have photo ID, and I think photo ID is going to make a little bit of a difference as well’ (Wright and Scott). He said this referring to Hilary Clinton and how she was a weak Democratic candidate and that thanks to the voter laws she will not stand a chance against the Republican candidates, or in this case Ted Cruz. In addition, a Republican Wisconsin Legislature, Scott Walker tweeted “Huge turnout yesterday shows that photo ID law works just fine. Easy to vote but hard to cheat" (Wright and Scott, CNN).