I will be researching the issue of whether or not the United
States government should require voters to provide some form of identification,
whether it is photo identification or just simply some sort of legal document.
I chose voter identification laws as my topic because I find it interesting to
know that the United States government is the only country in the world to not
require people to show some form of identification to vote. I also find much
controversy involved with this topic.
Recently we had the mid-term elections that featured the
election of Senators and House of Representatives that would be in office. As
of right now, 34 out of the 50 states require some form of identification in
order to vote. The other 16 don’t require this for people to vote. Out of the
required 34 states, Texas is described as one of the toughest in the nation for
a photo ID law being required. Many people believe we should put into effect
these voter ID laws because it reduces the risk of fraud, which can be an
important issue in close elections, and strengthens the validity of the
election results. Due to these concerns, this would keep hundreds of thousands
of voters from casting a ballot in Texas. Because the Supreme Court allowed
Texas to enforce their strict voter ID laws, this would manly harm the large
population of African Americans and Hispanics that live in Texas. On the other
hand, not requiring voter ID laws would increase the percentage of people
wanting to vote but can’t. The issue is important to minority voters as the
United States has a history of suppressing the voting rights of minorities
particularly in the South. Many Americans believe that requiring an ID to vote
disproportionately affects minority voters, like the mid-term election in
Texas, and is a violation of voting rights. Thus, there is a great controversy
whether the U.S. government should require voter ID laws or not.
The audiences most affected by this would most likely be
minorities that have been known to be suppressed from their voting rights and
just voters who don’t have an ID to vote. People without an ID and are in a
state that requires some from of ID to vote are going to go against wanting to
enforce these laws. Many proponents of voter ID laws would want these for the
sense of security they may achieve by needing to have an ID to vote.
