Essay Sample on The Enactment of Voter ID Laws in North Carolina

Introduction

In the United States, a total of 34 states have enacted the laws requiring a voter to present some form of identification during voting. The other 16 states exploit other means such as checking the voter's signature against what is on the voter's register (National Conference of State Legislature, 2018). Strictness at the pools differs between the states. While some states have strict poll laws, others are reluctant to enforce the regulations due to various reasons. North Carolina has traditionally used poll laws that demand some forms of identification during the poll day. This paper will discuss voter ID laws in North Carolina, the history behind the laws as well as the current aspects related to the laws.

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The controversial issue is linked to the Carolina Republican Party which has dominated the state's government powers since 2011. The party rode into power under the Republican wave that won the majority seats. After taking the majority of seats, the party initiated several changes that required a legislative majority to pass. Although they were able to make several changes, their amendments have not been very successful in recent years. The federal court halted the introduction of the law under 2013 election laws demanding for integration of voter's photo ID as part of the voting process. The court quoted racial discrimination in their ruling where the targets are non-white citizens. The court of appeal gave the verdict on July 2016 where Judge Diana Motz indicated that the amendments targeted the African-American voters. This court battle used $11 million of North Carolina tax payer's fund. The Supreme Court failed to approve the laws for two times, but the political elites behind the law were not giving up as indicated in their determination to explore other routes to introduce the laws in North Carolina.

The 5th Amendment of the US states that all citizens should be granted equal rights to vote regardless of their color or race. This amendment was instituted in 1870; however, poll taxes were later introduced in most states including North Carolina (Library of Congress, 2018). These laws were in place until the 1960s when they were abolished. The poll taxes were used to keep African-American away from the voting since most of them were poor. Currently, the Republican Party is sensing that their eight years grip on the power might soon end; they have devised inappropriate means to hold on power using their supermajority legislative to disenfranchise African American voters. After exhausting all means, the party resulted in using referendum. After passing the laws, the house will determine the type of ID to be used. People in support of the introduction of voter are citing intentions to curb fraud; however, they are not citing cases where frauds have been witnessed. The 2016 election audit reported did not report fraud cases that are related to lack of voter ID. The report showed that only one such case occurred among the 5 million voters sampled (North Carolina state board of election, 2017).

The referendum was set on 6th November 2018. Six other questions were passed along the requirement for the voters to use photo ID during voting. The house will discuss more details on the laws when the house is opened on 27th November. In addition of the laws being completely unnecessary, the most worrying aspect is that the laws will come along with the 21st-century poll tax that seems to affect the African-Americans. According to the Budget and Tax Center (2018), at least one person in every 20 voters registered in Mecklenburg County does not have Department of Motor Vehicle issued ID. While the African-Americans constitute 33% of all voters, they make 50% of voters who lack ID. The cost of acquiring an ID is about $100 inclusive of all the expenses such as travel and lost wages. Most African-American citizens cannot afford the money to cater for the ID. Some people will opt not to vote instead of spending such amount in acquiring an ID.

The new amendments now demand the citizens of North Carolina to produce photo ID before they are approved to proceed and vote. Despite the approval, the legislators will sit and decide what will be considered as a valid ID and what will be rejected, and given the house majority comprising of the Republicans, the law is likely to attract more controversy. North Carolina has now joined other states that require the production of photo ID before allowed to vote. Some of these states allow for an exception in cases where the voter cites religious inclination not to take a photo or they are poor among other considerations. It will remain to be seen whether North Carolina will allow for exceptions especially based on people who are poor. Majority of the poor are African- American. Exceptions should also be considered for other factors such as religious backgrounds. It will be an abuse of the right to vote if the poor are not allowed to vote if they do not have the ID.

Works Cited

Budget and Tax Center. (2018). The Cost of Creating Barriers to Vote. https://democracync.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/BTC-REPORT-photo-ID-2018.pdf. Accessed 14 October 2018.

Library of Congress. (2018). Primary Documents in American History: 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/15thamendment.html. Accessed 14 October 2018.

National Conference of State Legislature. (2018). Voter identification requirements: Voter ID laws. http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx. Accessed 14 October 2018.

North Carolina state board of election, 2017. Post Election Audit Report: General Election 2016. https://s3.amazonaws.com/dl.ncsbe.gov/sboe/Post-Election%20Audit%20Report_2016%20General%20Election/Post-Election_Audit_Report.pdf. Accessed 14 October 2018.