Alter: Republicans Working to Disenfranchise Blacks

Republicans aren't racist per se, but they'll use the law to disenfranchise black voters who overwhemingly cast their ballots for Democrats.

That according to Newsweek's Jonathan Alter in a September 11 article on "Jim Crawford Republicans." Crawford was the losing party in a Supreme Court case earlier this year upholding Indiana's Voter ID law.

[W]ith the help of a 2008 Supreme Court decision, Crawford vs. Marion County (Indiana) Election Board, white Republicans in some areas will keep eligible blacks from voting by requiring driver's licenses. Not only is this new-fangled discrimination constitutional, it's spreading.

GOP proponents of the move say they are merely trying to reduce voter fraud. But while occasional efforts to stuff ballot boxes through phony absentee voting still surface, the incidence of individual vote fraud—voting when you aren't eligible—is virtually non-existent, as "The Truth About Vote Fraud," a study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, clearly shows. In other words, the problem Republicans claim they want to combat with increased ID requirements doesn't exist. Meanwhile, those ID hurdles facing individuals do nothing to stop the organized insiders who still try to game the system.

The motive here is political, not racial. Republicans aren't bigots like the Jim Crow segregationists. But they know that increased turnout in poor, black neighborhoods is good for Democrats. In that sense, the effort to suppress voting still amounts to the practical equivalent of racism.

[...]

So about the only thing we know for sure this year is that with the Crawford decision we are seeing a return to the days when one political party saw a huge advantage in preventing as many poor people as possible from voting. That's understandable politically, but also un-American.

Of course, Alter is presuming an ID check will automatically result in a downturn in voting, rather than an uptick in eligible voters obtaining free state-issued ID. Yes, Alter neglected to mention that the Hoosier State will give voters such IDs free of charge:

If you do not possess an ID that is acceptable for voting purposes, Public Law 109-2005 requires the BMV to issue an Indiana State ID Card free.

Alter also neglected to mention that Indiana permits provisional balloting whereby people without IDs may cast ballots and have 10 days to go back with proper identification for the ballots to count.:

If you are unable or unwilling to present ID meeting these requirements, you may cast a provisional ballot. If you cast a provisional ballot, you have until noon 10 days after the election to follow up with the county election board and either provide the necessary documentation or affirm one of the law's exemptions applies to you.