Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Eric Holder: New voter ID laws are 'poll taxes'

Attorney General Eric Holder (Larry Downing/Reuters) Attorney General Eric Holder addressed the NAACP on Tuesday, deviating from his prepared remarks to deliver a strong truth about new voter ID laws proliferating in Republican-led states:
'Under the proposed law, concealed handgun licenses would be acceptable forms of photo ID, but student IDs would not,' Holder said, referring specifically to the voter ID law passed in Texas. 'Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them, and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them. We call those poll taxes.'
His remarks will be sure to stir up controversy, and sure to have Republicans screaming that he's playing the race card. Which is how they always react to the truth. These new laws will have a disproportionate impact on minorities. Just look at who is least likely to have a photo ID:
Graph showing distribution of various demographic groups without photo id (Mother Jones) Obtaining the necessary ID costs money. These laws put up a financial barrier to voting, and if that's not a poll tax, I don't know what is.


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