Voter ID

Today, 30 states require voters to present identification to vote in federal, state and local elections. Many Americans do not have the necessary identification that these laws require, and face barriers to voting as a result. Research shows that more than 21 million Americans do not have government-issued photo identification; a disproportionate number of these Americans are low-income, racial and ethnic minorities, and elderly. Voter ID laws have the potential to deny the right to vote to thousands of registered voters who do not have, and, in many instances, cannot obtain the limited identification states accept for voting. Many of these Americans cannot afford to pay for the required documents needed to secure a government-issued photo ID. As such, these laws impede access to the polls and are at odds with the fundamental right to vote. Learn more >>

06/08/2012
Transgender ID

Voter Suppression is an LGBT Rights Issue – Just Ask Asher

By Patrick DePoy, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:05am

Like many Americans, Asher Schor is excited to vote this coming November. Asher was born and raised in Pittsburgh, works at a public interest law firm, and feels more motivated than ever to participate in the electoral process. But Asher is one of thousands of transgender Americans whose driver’s license and passport do not reflect his or her true gender identity. Asher received his photo ID before his transition and the official sex listed still reads “Female.” He recently joined the ACLU of Pennsylvania’s lawsuit against a new and particularly onerous voter ID law, and I had a chance to discuss how the new law will impact him at the polls this November. This LGBT Pride Month, it’s important to examine the ways that voter suppression efforts, like newly-enacted photo ID laws, will have a disproportionately harmful impact on those who are transgender.

Read More»
04/12/2012
Voter Suppression

Infographic: The Facts About Voter Suppression

By Elizabeth Beresford, ACLU at 5:18pm

Learn more about how the attack on the right to vote disproportionately impacts minority voters.

Read More»
12/28/2011
Voter ID

Government Steps Up to Block Voter Suppression in South Carolina

By Steve Gosset, ACLU at 11:50am

There were eight states this year that passed some version of a law requiring photo identification for all voters. South Carolina was one of them, but hopefully not for long.

The Department of Justice on Friday blocked South Carolina’s law, which it said would have disproportionately affected thousands of minority voters.

Read More»
09/09/2011
Voter ID

Ohioans Rise Up to Stop Voter Suppression Bill

By Mike Brickner, ACLU of Ohio at 11:00am

Pundits, politicians, and publicists all agree: Ohio is crucial to any national election. And this year, Ohio is just one of many states that has had to grapple with legislators’ attempts to restrict voting rights. In 2011, state legislatures across the country considered, and ultimately passed, a range of voter suppression legislation, including photo ID and proof of citizenship requirements, cuts to early and absentee voting, and more.

Read More»
04/21/2011
Voter ID

Wichita Blues: Kansas Mandates Photo ID For Its Voters

By Jon Sherman, Voting Rights Project at 4:12pm

Kansas took a giant leap backwards this week by enacting one of the harshest voter ID laws in the country. Gov. Sam Brownback signed a bill into law Monday that will require voters to present photo ID at the polls as well as proof of citizenship in order to register. Kansas has joined a small group of outliers in passing such a retrograde law. Thirty-two state legislatures have introduced similar photo ID bills this year in what appears to be a nationwide coordinated effort to erect new barriers to voting. Only two other states in the union—Indiana and Georgia—refuse to hand a regular ballot to a voter who lacks photo ID without exception or alternative.

Read More»
06/04/2012
Voter Suppression

Wisconsin’s Recall Election: State Law Makes Voting An Uphill Battle for Young Voters

By Demelza Baer, Washington Legislative Office at 4:16pm

You remember Wisconsin, right? It’s the place where last year a battle over proposed budget cuts – that would reduce employee benefits and collective bargaining rights – prompted the prolonged protests of thousands of people in the state’s capital, as well as the temporary self-exile of state senators to Illinois to delay a vote on the budget measure. Fiercely-held opinions on both sides of the issues prompted a gubernatorial recall petition drive.

Read More»
05/04/2012
This Week in Civil Liberties

This Week in Civil Liberties (5/4/2012)

By Rekha Arulanantham, ACLU at 4:41pm

What surveillance tool used by law enforcement could lead to nightmarish privacy infringement?

This week, the White House confirmed the existence of what program that has been kept secret by the CIA?

“Liking” on what social network is not protected by the First Amendment, according to a federal judge in Virginia?

Which state wants to replace one private prison contractor with another?

Which state is being sued by an ACLU affiliate for its discriminatory voter ID law?

Read More»
09/07/2011
Voter ID

Core Civil Liberties Threatened in State Legislatures: Three Trends to Watch

By Nicole Kief, ACLU & Nicole Kief, Elissa Berger & Vivek Malhotra, ACLU at 3:32pm

State legislatures are ground zero in the fight for civil liberties. Although they may not attract as much attention as debates in Congress or arguments in the Supreme Court, they are the source of unprecedented assaults on our most fundamental rights.

Three troubling trends of the 2011 state legislative session were:

  1. restrictions on accessing abortion;
  2. racial profiling bills targeting Latinos and immigrants; and
  3. measures suppressing the right to vote.

Did your state see a battle on one of these issues? Check out this map to learn more.

Read More»
08/30/2012
Voter ID

ACLU Lens: Federal Court Blocks Texas Voter ID Law

By Vesna Jaksic, ACLU at 2:46pm

A federal court today struck Texas’s discriminatory voter ID law, which would have prevented many eligible citizens from exercising their fundamental right to vote. 

The ACLU had intervened in the case in order to represent individuals and organizations who would be negatively impacted, and protect the right to vote. Today’s decision by a three-judge Washington, D.C. panel comes at a time when the right to vote is under attack nationwide.

“By blocking this law, the court reaffirmed the right of all people in this country to participate in our democracy,” said Nancy Abudu, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Voting Rights Project, which intervened in the case along with the ACLU of Texas.

Read More»
08/13/2012
Voter ID

States to Young Voters: We Don’t Want a Repeat of ‘08

By Demelza Baer, Washington Legislative Office at 5:21pm

Defying the stereotype that they are apathetic or disengaged, young voters turned out in droves in the 2008 presidential election, capping off their record-setting participation in many state primaries and caucuses. Although the high water mark for turnout among voters under 30 remains 1972, which was the first presidential election after the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution lowered the voting age to 18 years, the highest youth turnout in the past four decades happened in 2008 and 1992.  Perhaps most significantly, 2008 marked the third consecutive presidential election that youth turnout increased, and nearly six out of ten young African-American voters turned out in 2008, which is the highest voter turnout among young people of any racial or ethnic group since the voting age was lowered.

Read More»

Related

case

3/18/2013
Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona

interactive

2/26/2013
Timeline: A History of the Voting Rights Act

case

1/30/2013
Shelby County v. Holder

case

11/9/2012
Nix v Holder

podcast

9/18/2012
Conoce tus derechos - Escucha
Statistics image