WASHINGTON –A string of laws and proposals popping up across the country this year to strengthen voter ID requirements are part of an effort to discourage students, who turned out in large numbers for President Barack Obama in 2008, from voting, the head of Rock the Vote told a young progressives conference Thursday.
“Under the radar, there are a set of people trying to make it harder for students to vote,” said Rock the Vote President Heather Smith at the Campus Progress National Conference just one day after Rhode Island announced a new voter identification law requiring photo IDs.
Heather Smith, president of Rock the Vote, and Eric Marshall with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, spoke about Voter ID legislation and its effect on young voters during the Campus Progress National Conference Thursday. Photo credit: Kelly F. Zimmerman
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Rhode Island became the seventh state to have new or strengthened voter identification policies signed into law this year; several dozen more are considering or have considered similar proposals. “In a democracy, where the right to vote should absolutely be protected, we should be working to make it easier, not harder to cast a ballot,” Smith said.
On Wednesday, President Bill Clinton also criticized restrictive voting initiatives such as the new photo ID laws as a “one of the most pervasive political movements” today, saying Republican governors and legislators are trying to keep young Americans and minorities from voting in the 2012 election.
However, proponents of the voter ID laws say they help prevent voter fraud.
College Republican National Committee spokesman Rob Lockwood said that requiring a government-issued ID does not hinder the right to vote.
“Requiring a valid government-issued ID to enter a ballot box protects the integrity of our democracy,” Lockwood said. “Valid forms of government identification are required to get onto an airplane, into an R-rated movie, or into a bar, so why not into a ballot box?”
Campus Progress, an arm of the progress think tank Center for American Progress, called the voter ID legislation a conservative effort to keep young people away from the polls in 2012. The group specifically noted the Republican governors of Wisconsin and New Hampshire as pushing through laws aimed at discouraging young and minority voters from casting ballots.
Smith said asking residents to obtain a special state-issued ID is the no different than a poll tax, which is prohibited by federal law, because there is a cost for out-of-state college to get new forms of ID, which can be time-consuming and difficult.
“It’s already hard enough for students who live out of state to be able to go out and vote,” agreed Rachel Oyelola, an 18-year old student from Tolland, Conn. who attends college in Chicago. “(Photo ID laws) just make it harder.”