Rep. Larsen Proposes Legislation to Ban Voter ID Requirements in Federal Elections
On Friday, Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) introduced legislation that would effectively ban requirements that voters show some form of official identification in federal elections. Under the proposed law, voters without required identification would still be able to vote by signing a sworn affidavit that they are the person they represent themselves to be.
Voter identification laws have proliferated in the states in recent years, with critics charging that they are nothing more than a poll tax to suppress the votes of groups, such as people of color and students, that traditionally vote for Democrats. Think Progress reports:
Voter ID laws, which require voters to show photo ID in order to vote, are one of the most common forms of voter suppression laws favored by Republican state lawmakers. Although the laws’ supporters claim that they are necessary to combat in-person voter fraud, a voter is more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit fraud at the polls. According to one study, a vanishingly small 0.0002 percent of votes are the product of such fraud. Instead, the primary function of voter ID laws is to make it harder for minorities, students, low-income voters —all of whom are both less likely to have ID and more likely to vote for Democrats than other voter demographics—from casting a ballot.
