Dem
51
GOP
49
One of the Republicans' key election tactics is voter suppression. They know that suppressing the vote in Democratic areas always helps their cause. Some of the ways of suppressing the vote fall under the category of dirty tricks, like sending people text messages the day before the election saying that due to technical problems, the election has been postponed until Wednesday.
One of the most effective ones, though, is just enforcing the law. Only U.S. citizens have the right to vote. But it turns out that, according to a new survey, something like 9% of all eligible voters do not have proof of citizenship. Proof could include a U.S. birth certificate, passport, certificate of naturalization, and other documents. But millions of people have none of these. If a county or state announced a week before the election that everyone had to bring proof of citizenship, millions of people could not do it and could be denied the right to vote. There would be instant lawsuits demanding that any voter without proof be allowed to cast a provisional ballot, but at the very least, some people who don't have proof might be discouraged from even trying to vote. That could affect the outcome.
Why would an election official suddenly require voters to show proof of citizenship to register or vote? Well, Donald Trump is constantly yelling that millions of illegal immigrants are voting. In states where the law specifically states that only U.S. citizens can vote, a Republican election official might feel that he or she can legitimately enforce the law by demanding proof of citizenship, knowing that poor people, who skew Democratic, are unlikely to have a passport and many may not have a birth certificate either, especially if they were born 60, 70, or 80 years ago and have moved multiple times in their lives.
The study noted that in Kansas, 30,000 people had their voter registration held up over citizenship issues. In Arizona, the law strongly impacted college students and tribal members. It also noted racial disparities. Voters of color are much less likely to have proof of citizenship than white voters.
Closely related to this issue is the photo ID law many states have. These laws require voters to show up with a photo ID, such as a driver's license (which does not imply citizenship, since green card holders can also get driver's licenses but can't vote). The study showed that 30% of Black Americans between 18 and 29 do not have a driver's license, while only 5% of white Americans lacked that document. All states that require a photo ID also issue free voter ID cards. The card has to be free or it would be an illegal poll tax. However, getting a voter ID card requires showing up with proof of citizenship, such as a U.S. birth certificate. Also, birth certificates are not issued for free and getting one requires proof of who you are (like a birth certificate). In addition, the offices that issue birth certificates might be open only 9 to 5 on weekdays (or less), making it difficult for people who work those hours to get there.
In short, there is plenty of opportunity for Republicans who want to suppress the vote to do so. Can Democrats do anything to counter this? One thing is an education campaign to inform all voters what is needed to vote and how to obtain the documents. Another might be to set up a fund to reimburse voters who got a birth certificate and then a voter ID card if they brought a copy of the receipts and documents to some office. Maybe there are other things, but ignoring the issue is probably not a good approach. (V)