THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT – PART II

When voters across America went to vote last month, many eyes were on Texas, which has faced recent criticism that its new voter ID law could make it harder for women to vote. But as noted above, many states have passed restrictive voter ID laws recently.  State legislators claim the laws reduce voter fraud—there were only 13 credible cases of in-person voter impersonation between 2000 and 2010—by requiring voters to present various forms of identification. Poor, elderly, and minority voters, along with women, are hit particularly hard by these harsh voting requirements, and voters felt the impact when trying to cast their vote this month.

According to Mother Jones, while some Americans headed to Twitter to express their support for the new voting regulations, others used the medium to complain about not having their votes counted or being forced to jump additional hurdles, such as signing a sworn affidavit. And to underscore the confusion that these laws have wrought across the country, some voters didn’t know what kind of identification, if any, they needed. There are also reports of poll workers requiring IDs in states like New York and Iowa, which don’t have voter ID laws on the books. Mother Jones is tracking voter complaints across the United States, through both Twitter and organizations that run help lines, to determine which states were having trouble. Here’s what we’ve found: 

Mother Jones went on to report that Texas has one of the strictest voter ID laws in the country, requiring voters to prevent photo identification with a name that “substantially” matches the name on the voter registration list. High-profile Texans, including ex-House Speaker Jim Wright and Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis, would have been unable to vote under the new law. But thanks to an amendment offered by Davis, voters whose names don’t match—particularly women who’ve taken their husbands name—can sign an affidavit swearing under penalty of perjury that they are who say they are. While plenty of voters questioned why the law was such a big deal and said they had no trouble voting—others complained of having to sign affidavits.

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