One Data Point Shows Why Fighting Voter ID Is a Losing Battle

Author

Bubba
25 Oct

While there’s been a lot of handwringing in the media over measures designed to shore up election integrity, voters seem unbothered by the laws. (Gallup)

The vibes: Amid a Republican push to stamp out alleged voter fraud, a new Gallup survey shows a whopping 84% of Americans are in favor of requiring photo identification to vote.

  • 83% support providing proof of citizenship when registering to vote for the first time, another policy Republicans have championed.

On the other hand: The public does oppose some of the restrictions on voting proposed by Donald Trump and the GOP.

  • 60% support sending absentee ballot applications to all eligible voters.

  • 64% oppose removing people from voter rolls if they haven’t voted in five years.

  • 58% oppose limiting the number of absentee ballot drop boxes.

The politics: There’s a heavy partisan split on the issue.

  • 57% of Republicans support early voting, 38% lower than Democrats.

  • Republicans strongly back proof of citizenship and photo ID policies, with Democrats’ support for these measures 30 points lower.

The narrative: Some Democrats and media figures have claimed voter ID laws and other restrictions at the ballot box discriminate against minorities.

Bubba’s Two Cents

Not to open a giant pandora’s box but here’s a quick and dirty take on the voter fraud issue that’s bound to irritate everybody:

  1. It happens more often than Democrats and the media acknowledge and that’s objectively a bad thing. Any level of fraud should deserve inspection.

  1. There isn’t much definitive evidence that it happens at a widespread scale like Republicans like to claim, and a lot of the kookier theories put forth don’t help the case.

  2. There have been sweeping changes to election laws in recent years that have made the system more vulnerable to abuse.

In the end, I’m aligned with most Americans on this. People seem to agree that making voting easier is okay, as long as we have safeguards in place—like confirming voters are actually citizens—to keep everything above board.