Voter ID Laws: The Disenfranchisement of Minority Voters?
AMERICANS THINK OF THEIR NATION as an exemplary democracy despite its long history of disenfranchising racial and ethnic minorities. It was not until 1870 that the Fifteenth Amendment gave former male slaves and their male descendants the right to vote. It took another 50 years until women became enfranchised by the Nineteenth Amendment. Still, many citizens had to deal with systematic disenfranchisement caused by regressive state laws such as poll taxes and literacy tests—some of which remained in effect as late as the 1960s. It was not until the 1965 Voting Rights Act was amended in 1975 that citizens were guaranteed voting information or even ballots in a language they could understand. In light of this history, any reform that could put an extra burden onminority voters needs to be carefully examined. For this reason, this article examines the effects of strict voter identification (ID) laws on minority voters.