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The 'Voter ID Is Racist' Con
Townhall.com ^ | October 25, 2018 | Larry Elder

Posted on 10/25/2018 9:59:32 AM PDT by Kaslin

Add late-night comic Trevor Noah to the list of ill-informed lefties who consider voter identification a "racist" demand intended to "suppress" the black vote.

"Isn't it interesting," Noah said, "how every time Republicans create a voting restriction, it just so happens to disproportionately affect people of the brown-brown? ... Let's be honest, you don't have to say who you're targeting to target someone. You just have to know which rules are likely to hit them the most."

Noah echoes the sentiment of then-Attorney General Eric Holder, who in 2014 characterized the call for voter ID laws as an example of "pernicious" racism. Last week, MSNBC's Chris Matthews told Holder's successor, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, that Republicans push voter ID laws to "screw the African-American voter." Lynch responded: "Yes, yes -- and it's nothing new. ... This is a historical issue. It's a current issue. And it's only history because it happened to somebody else, not because it could never happen again. That's what's happening now."

Former Vice President Joe Biden called Trump's assertion that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election a "flat lie." But Biden did not stop there. The Republican support for voter ID, he said, was all about suppressing minority votes: "It's what these guys are all about, man. Republicans don't want working-class people voting. They don't want black folks voting." Last year, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., denounced "racist voter ID laws and voter suppression tactics (that) sprout like weeds all across the country." In a press conference in July, CNN's April Ryan asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders: "So, Sarah, since you keep saying that the President is very concerned about the election process ... you did not mention voter suppression in that. Voter suppression has been an issue for decades and particularly in these last few elections."

Despite these alleged racist roadblocks to the ballot box, in 2008 blacks voted at a higher percentage than whites. That same year, liberal Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote one of the majority opinions in a 6-3 case that upheld Indiana's voter ID law, which required voters to show a photo ID -- such as a driver's license or passport -- before casting their votes. Stevens recognized "flagrant examples of (voter) fraud" throughout America's history and wrote that "not only is the risk of voter fraud real" but "it could affect the outcome of a close election." The additional burden on voters, Stevens argued, is more than offset by "the state's interest in counting only the votes of eligible voters."

Blacks also support voter ID. A 2016 Gallup poll found that 77 percent of non-whites support voter ID, nearly as high as the 81 percent of whites who support it.

The fact that voter ID is legal and popular does not, of course, affect the view that it "suppresses" the minority vote. The George Soros-supported website ThinkProgress ran a story last year with this menacing headline: "New Study Confirms that Voter ID Laws Are Very Racist."

Citing research by three professors from U.C. San Diego, Michigan State and Bucknell University, the article says: "turnout among Hispanic voters is '7.1 percentage points lower in general elections and 5.3 points lower in primaries' in states with strict voter ID laws. The laws also reduce turnout among African-American and Asian-American voters. White turnout, according to their study, is 'largely unaffected.'"

Case closed? Not exactly.

A follow-up study by researchers from Yale, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania found no evidence that voter ID laws have a statistically significant impact on voter turnout. This study examined the methodology and conclusions of the previous study. Its researchers wrote: "Widespread concern that voter identification laws suppress turnout among racial and ethnic minorities has made empirical evaluations of these laws crucial. But problems with administrative records and survey data impede such evaluations. ... We show that the results of the paper are a product of data inaccuracies (and) the presented evidence does not support the stated conclusion ... When errors are corrected, one can recover positive, negative or null estimates of the effect of voter ID laws on turnout, precluding firm conclusions."

In other words, the data do not support the notion that the "brown-brown" are too dumb, too lazy or otherwise incapable of obtaining the necessary identification to vote.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: voterid

1 posted on 10/25/2018 9:59:32 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Then India must be a hard racist country because they have printed 800 Million voter ID’s and no one can vote without a voter ID.


2 posted on 10/25/2018 10:01:55 AM PDT by entropy12 (One million LEGAL immigrants/year is too many, without vetting for skills, Wealth or English skills.)
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To: Kaslin
The corrupt media will tell you what the black population thinks. How dare a poll show them to be liars.

I hope for the day the blacks walk off the Democratic plantation.

3 posted on 10/25/2018 10:04:07 AM PDT by IC Ken (Stop making stupid people famous)
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To: Kaslin
These Democrats are all saying that BLACKS are either too POOR or too STUPID to know how to get an ID!! HELLO....THAT IS RACIST!

The ONLY reason they say this is so they can COMMIT VOTE FRAUD LIKE THEY ALWAYS DO!!

4 posted on 10/25/2018 10:04:38 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Kaslin
Citing research by three professors from U.C. San Diego, Michigan State and Bucknell University, the article says: "turnout among Hispanic voters is '7.1 percentage points lower in general elections and 5.3 points lower in primaries' in states with strict voter ID laws.

Sounds like this is probably a pretty good estimate of the level of voter fraud!

5 posted on 10/25/2018 10:06:33 AM PDT by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius (170 BC - 86 BC))
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To: Ann Archy

of course, how else would they be able to steal an election?


6 posted on 10/25/2018 10:07:08 AM PDT by Kaslin (And that is not)
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To: Ann Archy
Democrats be like:


"Now remember, Katy Scarlett, you must be firm, but gentle with inferiors, especially darkies".

7 posted on 10/25/2018 10:15:39 AM PDT by Sans-Culotte (Time to get the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US!)
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To: Kaslin

It’s not a con if no one buys it. It’s more like a very poor excuse.


8 posted on 10/25/2018 10:19:25 AM PDT by rightwingcrazy
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To: Kaslin

The idea that Black people don’t own an ID is laughable. It’s practically impossible to live without some kind of official ID. It costs all of about $10 to get a state ID that will suffice for all legal purposes.


9 posted on 10/25/2018 10:22:07 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: Kaslin

Indiana has had it since 2006 and nobody has ever been denied and ID and a vote that was eligible. So are people outside of Indiana too stupid to get an ID?


10 posted on 10/25/2018 10:24:59 AM PDT by pas
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To: Kaslin

Just voted for Voter ID here in NC:-)


11 posted on 10/25/2018 10:28:58 AM PDT by Harpotoo (Being a socialist is a lot easier than having to WORK like the rest of US:-))
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To: Kaslin

Most Caucasians are not racists. The vast majority treat people fairly and see them as individuals not members of a racial group. The same is true for other minority groups - gay, Latino, etc. False claims of racism diminish the importance of true discrimination and behavior everyone abhors.

Just as when innocent children bare accused of sex crimes or thrown out of school for pointing a finger like a gun, the Left ruins everything it touches.


12 posted on 10/25/2018 10:38:32 AM PDT by bigbob (Trust Sessions. Trust the Plan.)
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To: Kaslin

The “brown-brown” (is that like rape-rape?) have to have ID to get all those government freebies.


13 posted on 10/25/2018 11:12:14 AM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know. how people are infected with Ebola.")
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To: FLT-bird

It costs all of about $10 to get a state ID that will suffice for all legal purposes.


Any voter ID has to be free to avoid running afoul of the 24th Amendment that abolished poll taxes. But as you say, it is practically impossible to get by without ID.


14 posted on 10/25/2018 11:13:47 AM PDT by hanamizu
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To: hanamizu

Voters should be fingerprinted.


15 posted on 10/25/2018 11:34:13 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
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To: Kaslin

Do they really believe whole racial groups are too stupid to drive?

Dont givum no fire water to injuns kemosabe...


16 posted on 10/25/2018 11:42:53 AM PDT by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
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To: hanamizu
Any voter ID has to be free to avoid running afoul of the 24th Amendment that abolished poll taxes.

A drivers license or state ID is not exclusively a "voter ID" but can be used to prove identity at polling places.

If a separate, special ID were required for voting I might agree.

17 posted on 10/25/2018 11:44:29 AM PDT by MileHi (Liberalism is an ideology of parasites, hypocrites, grievance mongers, victims, and control freaks.)
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To: Kaslin

Democrats always think that Black people are their retarded helpless pets.


18 posted on 10/25/2018 11:45:19 AM PDT by The Toll
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To: MileHi

Of course any government-issued is likely fine for voting. More states are requiring a photo ID (which is likely the problem Dems have with the idea). My point is that the state has to offer some form of free photo ID for those who don’t have a drivers license.

My state now requires a photo ID and the poll workers (who all have known me for years) check it to see I am who I say I am. In addition we have voter’s ID (non-photo) that gets scanned into some kind of data base so we can’t vote twice.


19 posted on 10/25/2018 12:17:51 PM PDT by hanamizu
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To: Kaslin

Then, we must be making it harder for blacks to get an education, also, because it takes an ID to get a LIBRARY CARD !!!!

They don’t seem to have any problems at all getting Welfare-—where they also need ID!!!

This has to end. ID for everyone-—and NO more early voting. No more motor voter laws. Purple fingers for all.


20 posted on 10/25/2018 1:04:52 PM PDT by ridesthemiles
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