Select an issue concerning voting rights or practices and briefly tell us your thoughts about it.
What constitutes a voting rights issue is subjective, but I have strong feelings surrounding Voter ID laws.
In several U.S. states, voters are required to present ID in order to vote during Election Day and to exercise their right to contribute to American democracy. I am not an irrational individual, and I can understand the perspective that these laws are established in order to prevent voting fraud, but I also find it unthinkable to ignore the manner in which these laws pose obstacles to voting equality.
First and foremost, getting an ID can be expensive, and Voter ID laws make it harder for the poor, a group that is already marginalized within the United States, to access their full rights as American citizens. Moreover, getting an ID requires a birth certificate, and this is a huge obstacle for immigrants and individuals who may not have access to their birth certificates for a myriad of reasons.
It is statistically proven that those who lack ID are often younger, poorer, less educated, and nonwhite.
While I wouldn’t necessarily classify Voter ID laws as a major voting rights issue, I would definitely consider it to be a practice that hinders voting equality in the United States. This practice is one that concerns me greatly.
First and foremost, I believe that any obstacle fueling voting inequality perpetuates democratic backsliding, and I struggle to believe that all Americans can be equal when we do not all have the same opportunity to vote. Moreover, I have several relatives in the United States who have never voted because they lost their birth certificates while coming to the U.S., so this issue is one that hits close to home for me.
I cannot claim to be an expert on voting rights, but I can say with full confidence that we are not all equally given the opportunity to participate in American democracy, and this is an issue that we as a society fail to address adequately.