ACLU challenges 'discriminatory' Kansas voter ID law
ACLU officials are scheduled to appear in court Thursday to block what they call discriminatory voter ID laws in Kansas. Two-thirds of US states now have some form of voter ID laws.
Chief inspector Jeanne Thieme inspects a voter's identification card at the Olbrich Gardens polling location in Madison, Wis. in February. A photo ID was required to vote in the election for state Supreme Court judges, a new requirement stemming from a law first passed in 2011 but eventually put on hold until it was upheld by the state Supreme Court in one of several rulings seen as partisan in recent years.
Michael P. King/AP/File
The American Civil Liberties Union will 聽to issue a preliminary injunction against another voter ID law that it says restricts democracy more than it prevents fraud, this time in Kansas.
Under the Kansas law, enacted in 2013, citizens must prove their citizenship to register to vote, as well as at the polls. Acceptable forms of identification for registration purposes include items like US passports or birth certificates, but not free state issued IDs.聽
Thirty-four states have in place, but Kansas has one of the stricter statues, requiring a .
The ACLU says that the Kansas law violates the Motor Voter ID Law passed by Congress in 1993 to raise voter registration rates and promote ease of registration. According to ACLU lawyer Dale Ho, Kansas does not conform to national voter registration law expectations, which require a uniform and accessible voter system.
Georgia and Alabama both have laws like Kansas's, according to Reuters. Other states, such as Wisconsin and Texas, have faced legal challenges to their similar laws in recent years.
The problems with these voter ID laws are manifold, say critics, that are already marginalized by society: African Americans, Hispanics, disabled individuals, and those in poverty.
鈥淰oter ID laws remain a threat to our democracy,鈥� said ACLU staff attorney Sean Young in a phone interview with the 海角大神 Science Monitor. 鈥淭hey affect a substantial portion of the population, particularly low income people.鈥�
Voters who cannot afford costly passports or meet driver鈥檚 license requirements also are likely to be unable to take the time to meet state requirements, although states with voter ID laws often point to services intended to help those who cannot easily register.
Mr. Young told the Monitor that, despite these promises, states do little to help poorer votes.
In late February, the Washington Post found that Texas鈥檚 voter ID laws , and prevented them from voting in the presidential primaries.
颁谤颈迟颈肠蝉听聽to the voter suppression that prevented African Americans from voting in the South during the Jim Crow era.
The ACLU estimates that in Kansas, about 22,000 eligible voters have been unable to register.
Meanwhile, proponents of these laws say that they help prevent voter fraud.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach supported the state's ID laws, saying that voter fraud can impact the outcome of an election.
"This is a very real issue and we have lots of close elections where the margin of victory is one vote or four to five votes," said Secretary Kobach. "Non-citizens voting can potentially steal an election."
But studies consistently show voter fraud is rare, and not effectively prevented by voter ID laws. A 2007 study by voting law expert Justin Levitt, 鈥淭he Truth About Voter Fraud,鈥� reported that due to the high financial and legal penalties, . 聽
And when voter fraud does occur, critics of voter laws say that . Far from Kobach鈥檚 claims regarding 鈥渟tolen elections,鈥� studies of voter fraud show that when it does occur, it is committed by dozens of individuals in a given election, rather than thousands or even hundreds.
The ACLU says the rise in voter ID laws corresponded to the mobilization of minority communities during the 2008 presidential election.
鈥淭hese laws have definitely become more common since African American turnout rose,鈥� Young told the Monitor, 鈥淓ight states passed laws after 2008. I think it鈥檚 no coincidence that these laws followed so swiftly after minority communities came out to vote.鈥�
According to Young, concerns about voter fraud have been used to justify laws that prevent African Americans from voting for over a century.
The ACLU takes voter ID laws like Kansas鈥� very seriously. In 2014, it in Pennsylvania and Arkansas. Just this week, a Wisconsin Appeals court ruled that a lower court would have to about the state鈥檚 ID laws.
Despite these victories, the ACLU may be facing an uphill battle in its fight against voter ID laws, which grow more common each election. Nevertheless, Young says, 鈥淭he ACLU is not going to let up in its efforts to fight these discriminatory measures.鈥�