While many conservatives believe requiring citizens to present identification before voting is a common sense approach to battling election fraud, critics of such proposals claim that it would somehow suppress the turnout of minorities, and Black voters in particular.
In response to claims by President Joe Biden and other prominent leftists that voter ID laws are akin to segregationist Jim Crow-era policies, The Federalist’s Curtis Hill wrote that “Democrats must believe that blacks aren’t smart or interested enough” to obtain the proper forms of identification.
More recently, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland embraced the argument that such efforts to curtail voter fraud are inherently discriminatory.
Referencing federal court rulings that have allowed states to enforce their own restrictions, he claimed: “Since those decisions, there has been a dramatic increase in legislative measures that make it harder for millions of eligible voters to vote and to elect the representatives of their choice.”
Garland insisted that “such measures threaten the foundation of our system of government” and declared that the “right to vote is still under attack.”
It is worth noting that he chose the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Selma, Alabama, as the venue for his remarks, which also came during an event commemorating the civil rights demonstration that became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
Biden AG Merrick Garland, speaking at an Alabama church, says election integrity efforts — such as voter ID requirements and restrictions on ballot "drop boxes" — are "discriminatory, burdensome, and unnecessary." pic.twitter.com/UExpO3nGbD
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 3, 2024
The attorney general went on to vow that the Justice Department would, under his watch, continue “challenging efforts by states and jurisdictions to implement discriminatory, burdensome and unnecessary restrictions on access to the ballot, including those related to mail-in voting, the use of drop boxes and voter ID requirements” while “working to block the adoption of discriminatory redistricting plans that dilute the vote of Black voters and other voters of color.”
Even as Biden, Garland, and other White politicians on the left imply that Black Americans are incapable or unwilling to obtain a valid form of identification, a clear majority of citizens across the racial spectrum agree that enforcing voter ID laws is a good idea.
A 2021 Rasmussen poll found that three-fourths of voters overall — including more than two-thirds of Blacks and 60% of Democrats — believe voters should be required to present photo identification before casting a ballot.
