Voter ID Laws

August 26th marks Women’s Equality Day, the anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment prohibiting U.S. citizens from being denied the right to vote on account of sex. The 19th amendment is widely known for giving women the right to vote. Read more »

It’s a good week for residents of Arizona!

Just a few days ago, the Arizona state legislature passed Governor Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion proposal, bringing health care coverage to 238,000 low-income Arizonans.

And yesterday, the Supreme Court handed down an opinion that will make it easier for Arizonans to exercise their right to vote.

This morning the Supreme Court decided Arizona v. The Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc. In this closely-watched case, Arizona residents and civil rights groups challenged a state law that made it harder to vote. The controversial law put the burden on would-be voters to affirmatively prove their U.S. citizenship in order to register.

This law and others like it are serious threats to our right to vote, and they are especially harmful to women voters. Recent studies show that these restrictive voter registration laws disproportionately affect women, who often lack proof of citizenship in their current legal names. Only 66% of voting-age women with access to documents proving citizenship have documents in their current legal names, and only 48% of these women can show birth certificates with their current legal names [PDF]. Women also make up the majority of college students and senior citizens – both populations that are less likely to have qualifying forms of identification. Restrictive voting laws like Arizona’s require these women to jump through hoops in order to register, expending time and money to obtain the necessary documentation. Read more »

I will never forget the mnemonic from my seventh grade history class: “Amendment 19, in 1919, gave women the right to vote.” It is not totally accurate (although the House and Senate passed the amendment in 1919, it did not get ratified until 1920). But it did work. I still remember how it felt when I first learned that if I had been born 100 years earlier, I would not have been able to vote: I simply couldn’t believe that such backward ideas about women were persuasive in recent history.

It wasn’t until August 26, 1920 that a woman’s right to vote became law in the U.S. Yesterday, August 26, was Women’s Equality Day, commemorating the passage of the 19th Amendment and recognizing women’s ongoing fight for equal rights. It is a day both to remember the tremendous work of women like Susan B. Anthony, Ida B. Wells, and Alice Paul to win the right to vote, and a day to redouble our efforts to combat modern-day attempts to take the right to vote away from us. Read more »

Social media over the past 5-6 years has risen as a source to get your word out and it has been so influential that it helped President Obama’s campaign in the 2008 election. Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, tons of blogging platforms and now smart phone applications are becoming strong tools for a good campaign.

On Valentine’s Day I had the opportunity to attend a panel on voter identification and the ways many state governments are slowly making it harder and harder for citizens to vote. Currently 8 US states require all voters to have a photo ID present before they can enter the polls.

Some people (like myself before this panel) may be wondering what the big deal is. If they’re US citizens then they must have some sort of photo ID, so why not let the laws pass? Well, the panel, (made up of Vanessa Cardenas, Rashad Robinson, Faye Anderson, Alan Rosenblatt, Eric Rodriguez and Erika Maye) explained the problems with strict voter ID laws.

Speaker Nicole Austin-Hillery presented a slideshow made up of facts from the Brennan Center Report on Voting Changes. The report displayed some alarming information. 11% of Americans lack a photo ID, and 34% of women lack their proof of citizenship. Thirty-four percent! Read more »