I don't believe it, so explain how.
North Carolina --
The law requires a photo ID. If you're elderly, become disabled, lose your hearing or eyesight or have any other reason to stop driving, you are required to send your driver's liscence - the only photo ID most people have - back to DMV. They do not send you a non-drivers photo ID, and you no longer drive, so getting one becomes difficult. My father went through this, he has me to drive him around and chase down agencies and options on the internet for him. Trust me, it makes voting difficult.
The law eliminates 7 day of early voting. Allow me to turn this one around: How does limiting access to voting
not make it more difficult to vote?
The law eliminates same-day registration. Two trips - one to register, one to vote.
This is not blatant voter obstruction, by any means. It is subtle, and I don't think it will have a huge impact, but it will make it harder for some people to vote. Me? No problem. I'll do what I've always doe - get in line at the neighborhood school and vote. And when they ask me for a photo ID, I'll pull out my license, No big deal. I won't have as many days, as much opportunity to do that, so the lines will be longer (ie: harder to vote), but no big deal.
But it will make voting a bit more hassle for me (fewer days of access to the polls) and a lot more of a hassle to folks who need to register or don't have a photo ID. Are they throwing up a huge roadblock in front of the democratic process? No. But they're making it a bit harder for it to work for everybody.
The question is why. Voter fraud? In 2012, nearly 7 million ballots were cast in elections in NC. 121
alleged cases of fraud were referred to DAs offices (and this is politics we're talking about). In 2010, a non-presidential year, 3.9 million ballots were cast, and 28 alleged cases of fraud were reported.
Can I prove that these laws will keep more legitimate voters from the polls than the alleged fraud they were supposedly meant to address? Honestly, I don' t think I have to. So if a set of laws is going to prevent more lawful votes than alleged unlawful votes (like criminals can't make fake IDs?) what is the real point of the laws?
A: To prevent lawful votes.
Well, either that or the people who wrote the laws are just stupid.
Tim