You're probably not going to believe me but most of the work can be done in a single sentence:
Call these proposals what they are: Republican-issued IDs.
More on the framing below.
Voter ID
Voter ID is a good thing. People want voter IDs because they don't want voter fraud. Voter IDs invoke other sorts of IDs like drivers licenses, social security cards, college IDs, etc. Identification grants appropriate access and prevents fraud.
Identification is required for flying on airplanes, for purchasing alcohol, for senior citizen and college discounts, etc.
Here's the rub. We already have voter ID. You need identification to vote. Identification is used to prevent voter fraud. Voter identification is needed to help make sure voting is fair. Even in states that don't require a photo ID at the polls, they typically verify your identification using the signature from your voter registration.
This is why there is no voter fraud.
Let me repeat: We. Already. Have. Voter ID. Voter ID is what we have.
70% of voters believe citizens should be required to prove their identify before voting. Voter identification can be a good thing if it goes along with expanding registration and creating more non-partisan elections.
I believe many people support some type of process to verify identification. What is it I'm against?
Republican-issued ID
I'm against the abuse of voter IDs to make the voting process more difficult for certain voters. We should be expanding access to voting, not limiting it.
All the proposals on the table are Republican-issued IDs being proposed by states with Republican-led governments. Republicans are interested in the process not because they're interested in democracy and expanding access to voting, but because they believe they can control the identification process to prevent Democrats from voting.
They will close license bureaus in Democratic districts, they will limit hours, they will charge money for Republican-issued IDs, and they will make it as difficult as possible for Democrats to obtain Republican-issued IDs.
For example, in Texas, you can use a Texas concealed handgun license as a form of ID, but you can't use a college ID. Handgun owners typically vote Republican, college students vote Democratic. Why is the Republican-led government favoring one group over the other?
This is not voter identification. This is Republican-controlled and Republican-issued identification.
In Wisconsin, a judge recently struck down Republican-issued ID because evidence was presented that it placed an undue burden on poor people who work. A drivers license or Wisconsin picture identification can only be obtained through the department of motor vehicles. There are 92 DMV service centers in the state. All but two of these close before 5:00 p.m. and only one is open on weekends.
We should stop using their framing and call it what it is: Republican-issued ID.
Republican-issued ID invokes the idea of partisan politics. It invokes the idea of using government to specifically advantage one group over another. It is everything everyone should rightfully hate about government. It is undemocratic.
It also attaches the word Republican to a "big government" proposal. If we can change the framing enough that it threatens other Republican initiatives (in this case their entire brand), I think Republican-issued ID initiatives will go the way of the dodo.
Summary
If we have any hope of winning against Republican-issued ID we need to call it what it is and stop using conservative language and framing.
The minute we do, we've already lost because some type of identification is viewed as a good thing in the registration/voting process. We just need to make sure it's free, everyone has access to it, and it's used fairly and encourages voting. In other words, we need to make sure it's non-partisan.
The new Republican-led proposals are different and are not about identification. These new requirements are proposals designed to prevent Democrats from voting.
Let's call these proposals what they are: Republican-issued ID.
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David Akadjian is the author of The Little Book of Revolution: A Distributive Strategy for Democracy (release scheduled for October).