Cara Harris
Professor Bey
English 102
13 March 2016
Voter Identification: Disenfranchises African Americans Ever since Section 4b of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was struck down, disenfranchisement of African Americans has been underway. Politicians are starting to put in place laws that require everyone who wants to vote to obtain a photo identification to show at voting sites in order to prohibit voter fraudulence. Picture this, an African American family, who are members of the poor sector, who do not own a car, and barely survives. Imagine the parents of this family who have jobs that barely allow them to feed their families and pay the bills on time. Now imagine the irritation those parents feel when they aren’t able to pay for a voter identification to vote in elections so they can make the attempt to make their lives better. Then on top of that most of the DMV offices are never close by African American neighborhoods. These families do not have the proper funds to pay someone for gas to take them to a DMV, buy two voter identification cards, pay the bills, and feed the children on limited funds. Voter identification laws are said to prevent voter fraud so that elections are fair; instead they hurt the African American population, and corruption still continues. Instead of trying to allow poor African Americans the equal chance to vote as those who can afford it, politicians who approve of voter identification laws are making it quite impossible for African Americans to exercise their right. Voter ID laws discriminate against poor African Americans because it causes misrepresentation, “voter fraud” is not the real problem, and it requires too much money and time to acquire one. Since many African American families are in fact poor and cannot afford proper identification to vote, this leads to misrepresentation of the African American population. Most African Americans want to exercise their right to vote but are “poorer and less educated [and] are less likely to have [a] driver’s license or the resources to obtain official photo identification” (Sobel 107). This excerpt concludes that the African American population may be able to sway an election to benefit the majority of the country but are not able to even try to make their lives easier because they cannot acquire the proper identification. This misrepresented population will never be able to make their lives easier as long as they are misrepresented as a whole. Those that are less fortunate want to have opportunities to make their life better, but are not receiving it. They are stuck in the middle of poverty with the hope that one day it will get better. Imagine a poor child bring raised into a poor family. This child has now been brought into the world with already limited funds and resources. This poor African American will most than likely attend a synthetic secondary school. This leads the student to not get the proper education to even be eligible for college or its financial aid opportunities. Once they are brought into a life of poverty, it is very hard to overcome it. Laws such as the voter identification laws make their situation even harder because they cannot vote. How can they possibly put politicians in place who represent their needs to help their financial situation? They simply cannot.
There are many types of corruption that take place in America’s election system. Voter fraud is not a real issue, but there are other ways corruption occurs and there are not laws to prevent it from happening. The real issue is that American citizens are being deprived of their right to vote. For example, in the 2000 Presidential Election, based on the article “The Disenfranchisement of the African American Voter in the 2000 Presidential Election: The Silence of the Winner and Loser,” Walton Jr. Hanes asserts that during this Election, disenfranchisement did indeed occur. In this election in Gadsden County, Florida, where only one black belt remains with a population of 60% African Americans, their vote was allegedly accidentally not counted in the voting machines. 2,085 African American Democrat voters who had the proper documentation to vote were not able to participate. Because the election was corrupted, Republican Presidential candidate George W. Bush won in Florida instead of Democrat Presidential candidate Al Gore. It is evident that corrupt elections as this will continue to happen even if voter fraudulence is stopped. Politicians that favor voter id laws have yet to address the fact that corruption continues and voter fraudulence is not the real problem. Another example of how corruption continues is the redrawing of African American districts, known as gerrymandering. According to “Long Island gerrymandering attacking the Black and Latino vote” article from the New York Amsterdam Newspaper by Selena Hill “The growing populations of…African-Americans in Suffolk County should be grouped together so they can elect legislators to represent their needs. However, LATFOR's maps have dismantled them into separate, majority white districts.” Instead of politicians trying to help the families of African Americans by allowing them to elect a politician that can help them, it seems they want to hurt African Americans. Since the minority populations are split up by gerrymandering, they cannot collectively elect someone to represent them, so again they are misrepresented. If politicians want to solve corruption that occurs in the election system, there should not be laws such as voter identification laws which are corrupt in themselves. Instead of essentially solving a problem, voter id laws create an even bigger one. Rather than stopping people from voting as someone else, the government is basically blocking people of certain races to vote at all.
To acquire a Voter ID, there is a lot of money required. First, for a poor African American who does not have proper transportation convenient at their fingertips, they have to pay someone enough gas money to get them to and fro. To begin with a person is already put out of a great deal of money because the DMVs aren’t close by. To avoid this initial fee, DMVs could be placed in African American neighborhoods, so that those that do not have a car can walk to the voting site that is not that far away. Next, a person or couple has to buy two voter identification cards which costs $23.50 in Alabama, and for two that would be $47. That is roughly $50 for two identification cards plus gas money. After a while the ID expires and it has to be renewed every four years, which costs $18 per ID. Also if the ID is stolen or lost, it costs another $23.50 to replace it. The amount of money that is being used to purchase an ID and maintain the proper use of it is enough to buy groceries for a poor family for a couple of weeks, but instead it would be used for a voter identification card. This set back makes a poor family even poorer because the money that was supposed to be used for necessities is being used for something that poor families see as not as important. According to “The Big Lie Behind Voter ID Laws” from The New York Times, The Editorial Board states that “Voter ID laws, as their supporters know, do only one thing very well: They keep otherwise eligible voters away from the polls. In most cases, this means voters who are poor, often minorities, and who don’t have the necessary documents or the money or time to get photo IDs.” Poor parents of African Americans usually do not have the time to take off from work to buy the voter identification cards. The parents need to work all the hours they are given so that they can bring as much money in as possible. Being able to exercise their right as an American citizen to vote shouldn’t be hard to do, but voter identification laws are making it hard. Due to the fact that in order to require a voter identification card it costs a significant amount of money and time, many parents of African Americans families do not and cannot buy voter id cards, which means that they cannot participate in voting activities.
Voter identification promoters continue to argue that photo identification cards are needed to prevent the election system from fraud. The problem with this argument is that voter fraudulence is very uncommon. It is very unlikely that people commit voter fraudulence because the penalty is very extensive. According to the ORL Research Report “Anyone who votes or attempts to vote by assuming the name of another is subject to a fine of $500, one year in prison, and disenfranchisement” (Sandra). No one is going to commit this crime because of the penalties, it’s just not worth it. Because there is hardly any evidence of voter fraud, republicans are literally bribing American citizens to make evidence appear out of nowhere. According to the “Alabama GOP offers $1,000 for information on voter fraud” article from MSNBC, “Bill Armistead, the Alabama GOP chair, wrote on the party’s website Monday that Republicans will fork over the cold hard cash to anyone who provides “information that directly leads to a conviction of a felony for voter fraud.” Signs saying “Reward – Stop Voter Fraud,” and directing people to call a toll-free hotline…” (Roth). Republicans are so desperate to make their argument valid that they will stop at nothing so they can be right and continue to find ways to discriminate against African Americans. They are trying to make an issue that does not exist, exist. Based on the proof that voter fraud is not common, there is no reason to have laws that only disenfranchise and discriminate African Americans.
African Americans worked so hard in the 1960s in order to be allowed to exercise their right to vote as an American citizen. They were brutally beaten, ridiculed, and patronized just to be treated as the Caucasians. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 section 4b was struck down because it was said that the South had changed from the 1960s, however, in the 2000s African Americans are still discriminated against daily. Based on the continuous prejudice, there was no need for the act to be struck down. African Americans are disenfranchised every chance available, and voter identification laws are just one of the ways it happens. Voter identification laws lock African Americans from voting because it causes misrepresentation, “voter fraud” is not the real problem, and obtaining a voter identification requires too much time and money. Democracy is the foundation of this country, allowing citizens to have a voice by voting. When a person is denied the right to cast a vote, their American voice is taken away and not heard. The whole reason for the start of the United States of America was to build a nation for the people and by the people. The founding fathers who were apart of the original 13 colonies were frustrated because their voices were not heard and their needs were not met. This same frustration lies within the African American community; they would like to be a part of making positive American history. The voice of every American citizen should be heard, but everyone must help to regain the lost voices.

Works Cited
Hill, Selena. "Long Island gerrymandering attacking the Black and Latino vote." New York Amsterdam News Mar. 2012: 6+. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.
Norman-Eady, Sandra. "Voter Fraud." Voter Fraud. N.p., 12 Nov. 2004. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.
"Obtain An Identification Card In Alabama." Alabama ID Cards, Identification Cards. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2016.
Sobel, Richard, and Robert Ellis Smith. "Voter-ID Laws Discourage Participation, Particularly Among Minorities, And Trigger A Constitutional Remedy In Lost Representation." PS: Political Science & Politics 42.1 (2009): 107-110. Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 6 March. 2016.
"The Big Lie Behind Voter ID Laws." The New York Times. The New York Times, 12 Oct. 2014. Web. 06 Mar. 2016.
Walton Jr., Hanes. "The Disenfranchisement Of The African American Voter In The 2000 Presidential Election: The Silence Of The Winner And Loser." Black Scholar 31.2 (2001): 21. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.