Fixing Misinformation Episode 2: Voter ID Laws

     I just watched a short segment on MSNBC about the Voter ID laws passed in certain states stemming from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). These laws make me very angry because they have little to nothing to do with stopping voter fraud. This particular law is more effective at preventing real American voters from being able to vote than preventing the fraud.
     In 2012 Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin have a strict requirement for a photo ID at the polling place. According to a study by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, 11% of adult citizens lack a valid government photo ID and may be unable to get one as they do not have birth certificates. This translates to 21 million US citizens who may be unable to vote. This bodes badly for the older community because the older you get the less likely you have a photo ID. This also affects the poor as they may have not have transportation to get a photo ID precisely because they don't have an ID. Also, most offices to get IDs do not have extended or weekend hours. So, the people who can't afford to take a day off from work can't get an ID to vote.
     Also, this law hits minorities hard, but Andrew Cohen at the Atlantic describes this issue far more eloquently than I ever could. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/03/how-voter-id-laws-are-being-used-to-disenfranchise-minorities-and-the-poor/254572/ .
     The type of voter fraud prevented by these measures actually happen very little. The Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) churned out a report that documented all the cases that were prosecuted over the last ten years. They found only 311 cases over that ten year period. In the 2008 presidential election the total number of US citizens that voted was 122,394,724. That is only 1 year. If you take a tenth of the 311 total by the amount of votes in 2008 it accounts for 0.000254% of the votes.
     It seems to me like they are trying to fix a paper-cut by amputating the hand. Thankfully, there has been withdrawn support for these voter ID laws by the contributors of ALEC but there are still the laws in place that will be near impossible to get rid of.  If you want to help stop these laws and make sure every American citizen has their right to vote go to the ACLU website and see how you can help.