The Patriot Post® · No, Voter ID Laws Do Not Suppress Voting

Need to cash a check, board an airplane, or pick up a few beers for the weekend? Better bring along your ID. Need to vote in a presidential election? No worries. Heck, you can just pretend to be someone else. Even a dead person.

The good news is that more states are starting to jump on board with voter ID laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But currently only seven states require a photo ID. Three states require identification without a photo. Another 25 states “request” an ID, but allow voters to cast a provisional ballot if they can’t provide one.

In other words, there’s inconsistency across the board when it comes to verifying the identity of voters. If nothing else, these new laws will make it easier to see just how pervasive the problem is.

It’s no wonder the Left opposes commonsense voter ID. After all, the cheaters (as we saw in Florida’s Broward County last November) tend to be Democrats. Accordingly, the Left continues to peddle the false notion that the laws are nothing more than a way for Republicans to keep minorities from voting. Unfortunately, the mainstream media has pushed this false narrative and convinced many Americans that voter ID laws are inherently racist.

A new study, however, is bad news for these false prophets.

Professors Vincent Pons of Harvard Business School and Enrico Cantoni of the economics department at Italy’s University of Bologna conducted a study issued by the National Bureau of Economic Research. They concluded, “Strict ID laws have no significant negative effect on registration or turnout, overall or for any subgroup defined by age, gender, race, or party affiliation.”

In fact, areas with voter ID in place may actually see more so-called disadvantaged groups on Election Day. According to The Washington Free Beacon, the study also concluded, “Paradoxically … voter ID laws might goose turnout among certain marginalized groups. This, the authors argue, is because a perceived ‘attack’ on a right (e.g., the right to vote) can mobilize voters who would otherwise fail to turn out.”

Pons and Cantoni are not alone in their findings.

The Daily Signal reports, “Various studies in recent years done by professors at the University of Missouri, the University of Delaware, [and] the University of Nebraska surveying elections from 2000 through 2016 found similar results that voter ID laws do not suppress voter turnout.”

While it’s pretty clear that voter ID laws don’t keep anyone from voting, there is inconclusive evidence as to whether such laws combat voter fraud. One of the problems is that we haven’t had a sustained effort to uncover the causes of fraud at the ballot box — a task made even harder by those states that fail to require any form of ID on Election Day in the first place.

Of course, it doesn’t take millions of fraudulent votes to tilt an election — especially in a country whose political loyalties are so evenly split. A few illegals here, a few felons there, and a handful of dead people in that other place can make all the difference. Fortunately, organizations such as The Heritage Foundation are working to show Americans that voter fraud is real.

But Democrats are committed to keeping the scales tipped in their favor. They’re aggressively campaigning against the Electoral College itself and pushing for support of both the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and the grossly misnamed For the People Act. All of these measures are designed to overturn our long-established electoral system and open up the floodgates for widespread fraud.

Leftists are always clamoring that we “count every vote.” How telling it is that they’re also doing everything they can to keep the rest of us from ensuring the integrity of our elections.