Republican state legislatures aren’t only trying to prevent voting at
the polling place, they are also stopping people from becoming
registered voters in the first place. These same laws that require
voters to present state issued photo identification at the polling
both—nominally aimed at preventing voter fraud—also sometimes contain
provisions that are placing onerous requirements and stringent
limitations on third party voter registration efforts.
The targets are national and statewide organizations that use
volunteers or paid staffers to canvass underrepresented communities to
register new voters. Often these voters are young, poor or non-white and
thus lean Democratic. A study
by the Brennan Center for Justice found, “54 million eligible Americans
are not registered to vote. More than 25% of the voting-age citizen
population is not registered to vote. Among minority groups, this
percentage is even higher— more than 30% for African Americans and more
than 40% for Hispanics.” Registration drives typically focuse their
efforts on these historically disenfranchised populations, as well as
elderly and disabled voters who may have trouble reaching a government
office to register. Perversely, as the Brennan Center notes, “Instead of
praising civic groups who register voters for their contribution to
democracy, many states have cracked down on those groups.”
The excuse is that they wish to prevent fraudulent voter
registrations from being submitted. But the result, if these rules are
enforced, is that far fewer voters are registered.
