The right to vote is under attack in states across the country. Conservative legislators are introducing and passing legislation that creates barriers to voting, including “Voter ID” bills that require voters to show specific types of photo identification at the polls. The claimed intent of these laws is to prevent fraud, but in fact there are almost no cases of voter impersonation. A person is more likely to be struck by lightning than he or she is to vote by pretending to be someone else. These laws make it harder for young people, people of color, low-income people, the disabled, and older Americans to vote.

It's voter suppression, plain and simple.

Campus Progress, working with a coalition of allied organizations and people across the country, is fighting back, acting to highlight the dangers of anti-voting laws like Voter ID for civil rights and our democracy, to expose the special interests working to enact these bills, and to defeat and roll back such measures.

 

Has Your State Passed a Voter ID Law?

See the full map here.

 

Coverage of Voter ID Laws From Campus Progress

Read More Coverage of Voter ID Laws From Campus Progress

Voter ID Laws

"This is the civil rights issue of our moment...Whether or not these laws can be rolled back, their existence should unleash a great civic campaign akin to the voter-registration drives of the civil rights years. The poor, the young and people of color should get their IDs, flock to the polls and insist on their right to vote in 2012."
— E.J. Dionne Jr., "How states are rigging the 2012 election," Op-Ed in The Washington Post, June 19, 2011

Essential Reading

• Voter ID Laws 101
• Map: Has Your State Passed a Voter ID Law?
• Conservative Corporate Advocacy Group ALEC Behind Voter Disenfranchisement Efforts