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.
Voter ID laws is a controversial topic to choose for your paper. I did not know that the United States is the only country in the world to not require people to show some form of identification to vote. I agree with your statement that voter ID's would help prevent fraud and your election voters are stronger because the people voting actually will know what the election is about. If there is no voter ID's required in an election, more people will vote, but there will be more fraud and less people will know what is going on in the election. On the other hand, if you do require voting ID's in America, this will hurt the majority of minorities in America because they do not own one and may not have the money to obtain one. I think this is a very controversial and important topic to discuss because we are almost at the age to vote and this directly affects our lives today.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good topic to choose and I personally do not have an opinion because I do not know enough about it. I think it would be interesting to research how hard it is to get a photo I.D. for certain people based off factors such as ethnicity or income. I can see how having a photo I.D. would help prevent fraud but I can also see the ethical problem with requring a photo I.D. Since our country is "of the people, for the people" I beleive that everyone should have the right to vote to an extent. For instance, I'm not sure that felons or people incarcerated should be allowed to vote while serving their sentence. I think you chose a great topic that will bring to light both sides of this controversial topic.
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