Map: Has Your State Passed a Voter ID Law?

Click here to download a PDF of the map.

Millions of Americans could be turned away at the polls in 2012, according to a Campus Progress survey of the Voter ID laws making their way through state legislatures across the country. That’s because, as the Brennan Center for Justice found, nearly 12 percent of eligible voters nationwide don’t have the photo identification that the laws would require. Seven states now mandate photo ID at the polls, up from just two in 2008. An additional eight states request (but don’t require) that voters show photo identification.

As former President Bill Clinton said of Voter ID laws at the 2011 Campus Progress National Conference, “There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today.”  The voters most affected by these new requirements are students, seniors, people of color, and people of low-income. “Why is all this going on?” asked Clinton. “This is not rocket science. The [legislators passing these Voter ID Laws] are trying to make the 2012 electorate look more like the 2010 electorate then the 2008 electorate.”

Campus Progress’ Voter ID map illustrates the threat that photo identification laws pose to fair and free elections in the United States. As more states pass restrictive Voter ID laws, millions of the most at-risk and vulnerable Americans will be unable to cast their votes in future elections. Campus Progress will continue to track the progress of Voter ID laws throughout the 2012 election cycle.

Tobin is the deputy director for Campus Progress.

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