Voter ID Laws

Groups who are disenfranchised have little ability to affect who represents them or to influence their behavior in office. Certain laws affect poor, young and minority Americans’ (such as African Americans) rights to vote and also affects their descriptive and policy representation. These laws mainly affect minorities’ Formalistic representation, which means that they cannot have an input on a politician’s means by which the representative obtains his/her status. That effectively gives them no rights on the outcomes of elections that should be given to all people from the 14th amendment. If we still have laws disenfranchising certain groups how far have we really come?
In the past certain devices used to disenfranchise minorities were things
A report issued by the general report office found that “fewer African Americans have the types of identification like a driver’s license or state-issued identification card required to obtain a ballot than whites As a consequence, turnout among African American voters fell by a larger percent than turnout among white voters”(Wilson, Report: Voter ID laws reduce turnout more among African American and younger voters). Certain studies show that between five and twenty percent of voters do not have the proper ID required to vote specifically African American people. “One study found that only 79 percent of African Americans in Texas have a driver’s license, state-issued ID card or a gun permit, compared with 89 percent of whites. In Wisconsin, another study found 94 percent of eligible white voters had an identification, versus 85 percent of registered African Americans” (Wilson). Voter ID laws are meant to protect against voter fraud but voter fraud rarely occurs, “a study of more than 1 billion votes showed just 31 cases of voter impersonation”(Mazza, Bill O’ Reilly defends voter ID laws: “every African American I know has an ID). These laws are more effective at disenfranchising African Americans than they are at preventing voter
It is difficult to believe that there are still laws around that discriminate even if it is indirect. Even though there is much evidence that these voter ID laws disenfranchise African Americans they still don’t change. There is minimal evidence of widespread voter fraud for the need of voter ID laws, it can be said that the voter ID laws are for the purpose of political advantage just like redistricting. The Republican Party is the main benefactor towards these laws as African Americans being the main group being affected by these laws are more likely to vote Democrat. This issue is yet to be resolved. As many states still have these laws and there is no need for them as the data suggests there is minimal voter fraud. These laws need to be resolved as the 2016 election looms and the laws are affecting more people, the transgender community is also being disenfranchised due to voter ID laws “The report released this month found that more than 34,000 transgender Americans across eight states could be prevented from voting due to restrictive voter ID laws”(Miller, New report finds voter ID laws disenfranchise transgender