Voter Id Law Arguments

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States have certain reserved rights and duties that are left to their jurisdiction. However, as long as there is no infringement upon the states rights, federal law supersedes state established laws. Yet at times there are grey areas that aren't defined well enough, or open to a myriad of different interpretations. The recently passed Texas voter ID law, which requires voters to show a state-issued ID in order to vote, may fall under these obscure boundaries. As a democratic republic, citizens vote to elect representatives to enact legislation, and govern the country. It is not entirely a strictly democratic government, but citizens votes still matter. They make a difference, and it is imperative that the ballots of the country represent the…show more content…
Const. amend. XIV). This can be construed as providing equal opportunity and ability to vote. If a law were to impede on a persons ability to vote, then it would be deemed unconstitutional. Voting should be equally accessible to all people, regardless of socioeconomic status, education level, or background. This is for a multitude of reasons. To ensure equality among voters, and to limit a skewed voter turn out. The current voter ID law requires that for eligibility to vote, all people must present a state issued photo ID. Something that not all eligible voters have easily accessible to them. This fundamentally would make the law unfair to certain minorities. The circumstances under which the ability to vote should be hindered for an individual should be extremely limited. Unless voters with a disadvantage were provided with some sort of compensation or means to overcome these limitations, the law cannot be held constitutional. In Crawford v. Marion County Election, the court took into account the states interest in imposing a law such as the voter id law in Indiana. The court could only validate the law in the case that it imposed no burden to the voters, wasn't fueled by partisan interest, and didn't provide an unfair advantage or disadvantage to any political party. Or alternatively, if it did impose a burden on voter, it would…show more content…
In conjunction with the Crawford v. Marion County Election court case the states power to modify the voting process is limited in ways that can be burdensome to voters. The laws are set to protect voters and minorities from being discriminated, and to ensure that the voting process and availability is equal and just among all U.S citizens. However anything outside the scope of these limitations is in the jurisdiction of the states. As long as these specific criteria are met, state and local governments are free to decide how the voting process and what qualifications voters must meet in order to vote. Any qualification that may be detrimental to voters must be qualified and justified. This is ultimately subjective to what constitutes the specific state laws. In the case of the Texas voter ID law, it is debatable whether the desire to combat voter fraud is held in higher regard than the right to vote of some citizens. The Texas voter ID law has placed under scrutiny, and has faced various road blocks. In 2011 the law was stuck down as unconstitutional as it imposed unduly burdens on minority voters (Hobby et al. 2015). In a survey done in 2014, 12.8% of people surveyed stated that not having a state issued ID was the reason they did not vote. Among latinos 76.9% of
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