There Are No Sound Arguments Against Requiring Photo ID to Vote

If Democrats want “no excuse” absentee voting, Republicans can at least demand “no excuse” photo ID

Democrats’ resistance to photo ID laws makes no sense from a legal or election integrity standpoint, but it makes perfect sense politically—if they hope to build permanent majorities through mass voter fraud. 

Few Americans believe in false impersonation or that non-citizens should be allowed to vote. Polling shows nearly 80 percent support requiring photo ID to vote, including over 60 percent of registered Democrats. A 2022 Gallup poll found non-white voters support requiring photo ID by 77 percent, only 3 points lower than whites, despite claims that voter ID laws disenfranchise minorities.

Requiring photo ID to vote is a simple means to reduce the likelihood of fraud. Driver’s licenses, other state-issued ID cards like concealed carry permits, military IDs, and student IDs are common forms of acceptable identification. Showing a photo ID ensures someone cannot vote for someone else or double vote. 

If an eligible voter lacks an acceptable form of ID, state governments provide one free of charge, as failure to do so would undoubtedly be ruled unconstitutional. If voters lack an acceptable ID on Election Day, and still wish to vote, states allow them to cast provisional ballots.

Yet the Democratic Party acts like requiring photo ID tears apart the fabric of the republic.

Nearly every election-related bill Congressional Democrats introduced over the past decade sought to ban requiring photo ID nationwide.

(READ MORE: Democrats' "Freedom to Vote Act" is the Death of Free Elections)

As of the 2024 election, half the states require voters to present photo ID, while another 10 require some form of ID without specifying the voter must present a photo. There are some exceptions in states that require photo ID. Wisconsin, for instance, exempts the “indefinitely confined,” and the federal government exempts all overseas voters from having to present a photo ID.

So, why is there such a stark disconnect between what the Democratic Party pushes regarding photo ID and what a majority of Democratic voters want?

This owes partly to leftist donors and activists understanding that their preferred party cannot win elections fairly because the American people aren’t buying what they’re selling. 

Since wasting massive amounts of money on John Kerry in the 2004 election, leftist mega-donors have funneled large portions of their would-be campaign donations into tax-free leftist nonprofits that campaign incessantly to change long-term voting patterns. One of these nonprofits’ tactics is to overload voter rolls through universal registration of likely Democratic voters who don’t need much persuading due to the Left’s singular focus on identity politics.

These activist groups repeatedly claim that historically marginalized groups lack access to government-issued photo IDs and are thus disenfranchised when asked to provide one. They argue that it is a violation of the 15th Amendment, because it acts the same way poll taxes did a century ago in aiming to disenfranchise black Americans. 

The leftist Brennan Center published a much-touted study in 2006, showing 11 percent of Americans lacked an acceptable form of voter ID.

But the Left’s argument that requiring photo ID unduly burdens potential voters because it forces them to plan ahead and get their photo taken lacks merit. It’s likewise burdensome to expect people to find transportation to the grocery store or pay grocery delivery fees. People would revolt if state governments required all grocery stores and restaurants to provide free front-door delivery service because of the upcharges that everyone would then face just to eat. 

As far as it suppressing minority voter turnout, even the liberal Atlanta-Journal Constitution admitted election results refuted voter ID opponents’ claims:

When Georgia became one of the first states in the nation to demand a photo ID at the ballot box, both sides served up dire predictions. Opponents labeled it a Jim Crow-era tactic that would suppress the minority vote. Supporters insisted it was needed to combat fraud that imperiled the integrity of the elections process. But both claims were overblown, according to a review of by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution of statewide voting patterns in the five years since the law took effect. Turnout among black and Hispanic voters increased from 2006 to 2010, dramatically outpacing population growth for those groups over the same period.

The only evidence the Journal offered for photo ID supporters’ claims being overblown was the lack of verified voter fraud. But as Restoration News has reported, opponents of voter integrity often use voter fraud convictions as the unreasonably high bar for conceding that voter fraud ever happens.

The Brennan Center admitted the Georgia example contradicted its position but conveniently tried to apply the Broken Window Fallacy to Georgia’s Voter ID law. The center claimed minority turnout in Georgia increased after the state passed a photo ID law only because of increased get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts—but without evidence projected turnout would have been greater absent voter ID requirements.

Requiring photo ID is not that controversial to the vast majority of American voters and provides a simple way to reduce the likelihood of fraud and inspire public confidence in the outcome of elections. Despite Democrats’ low expectations of their base, minority voters do not expect everything to be delivered to them on a platter in their living room. Almost all drive, almost all have the mental agency to plan and acquire a photo ID if they lack it, and almost all support requiring photo ID to vote. This is another example of elitist Democratic activists using every sleazy tactic in the book to win elections under the guise of protecting helpless minorities.

(READ MORE: The GOP’s Blueprint for Fair and Secure Elections)