Rep. Lewis: Voter ID ‘A Poll Tax by Another Name’

It’s no secret that voter ID laws unfairly affect young people, college students, and minorities, making it more difficult for them to exercise their right to vote in a number of states.

That’s disturbing to Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who took up the issue of voter ID legislation in a New York Times op-ed published Friday:

Having fought for voting rights as a student, I am especially troubled that these laws disproportionately affect young voters. Students at state universities in Wisconsin cannot vote using their current IDs (because the new law requires the cards to have signatures, which those do not). South Carolina prohibits the use of student IDs altogether. Texas also rejects student IDs, but allows voting by those who have a license to carry a concealed handgun. These schemes are clearly crafted to affect not just how we vote, but who votes.

Lewis references another comparison—between voter ID efforts and Jim Crow laws—that you may have heard before. (Hint: It was when President Bill Clinton spoke at the 2011 Campus Progress National Conference, saying: “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.”)

That’s a strong comparison, but it’s well supported. Lewis grew up as the “son of an Alabama sharecropper,” witnessing firsthand those voter suppression efforts.

“Despite decades of progress, this year’s Republican-backed wave of voting restrictions has demonstrated that the fundamental right to vote is still subject to partisan manipulation,” Lewis writes.

To date, seven states now require photo IDs at the polling booth and eight others request identification, according to a Campus Progress survey. Find out if your state requires or requests a photo ID here.

Campus Progress has been a strong opponent of such legislation, noting that voter fraud is an incredibly miniscule issue. Earlier this year, Campus Progress revealed that the American Legislative Exchange Council was helping draft “model legislation” that limits many Americans’ right to vote.

In the NYT piece, Lewis argues the laws will not apply equally to all Americans, and will disproportionately affect young people and minorities.

Nearly a quarter of black Americans don’t have proper ID and 12 percent of all Americans wouldn’t have the right photo identification under the already-passed laws.

The Georgia Democrat writes:

We’ve come some distance and have made great progress, but Dr. King’s dream has not been realized in full. New restraints on the right to vote do not merely slow us down. They turn us backward, setting us in the wrong direction on a course where we have already traveled too far and sacrificed too much.

Read Rep. John Lewis’ full op-ed piece here.

Brian Stewart is the journalism and online communications manager at Campus Progress.

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