A majority of likely voters, including a majority of black voters, do not believe voter identification laws discriminate, a Rasmussen Reports survey released Tuesday found.
Prominent leftists across the board — from President Biden to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — have described basic election integrity measures, such as the recent law signed in Georgia, as forms of suppression. Schumer went as far as deeming state election integrity efforts “one of the greatest threats we have to modern democracy in America.”
“Some of these voter suppression laws in Georgia and other Republican states smack of Jim Crow rearing its ugly head once again. It is 160 years since the 13, 14, and 15th amendments abolished slavery, and Jim Crow stills seems to be with us,” Schumer said during last month’s Senate Rules and Administration Committee hearing on S. 1, or the “For the People Act.”
President Biden referred to election integrity efforts pursued by GOP state legislators “un-American” and “sick,” making “Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle.”
However, the vast majority of U.S. likely voters disagree with the Democrat narrative and do not consider basic election integrity measures, such as requiring valid photo identification to vote, as discriminatory in nature.
“Do laws requiring photo identification at the polls discriminate against some voters?” the survey, taken April 11-12 among 1,000 likely U.S. voters, asked.
A majority, or 62 percent, said no, 29 percent said yes, and nine percent indicated they remain unsure. Notably, 59 percent of black voters agree that requiring photo ID at the polls is not discriminatory, and 58 percent of those who did not identify as either black or white agreed.
Opinions, unsurprisingly, are divided on party lines, as 79 percent of Republicans say voter ID is not discriminatory, compared to the plurality of Democrats, 46 percent, who disagreed. Forty-three percent of Democrats said voter ID is not discriminatory, putting the Democrat opinions — between agreeing and disagreeing — within the survey’s +/- 3 percent margin of error.
The criticisms have come as Georgia passed an election integrity measure and Democrats in the House passed H.R. 1, or “For the People Act,” which would nationalize elections, largely stripping states of their ability to implement basic election integrity measures such as voter ID and systems to clean the voter rolls.
As Breitbart News reported, “the bill declares that photo ID, ‘burdensome’ voter registration procedures, purges of ineligible voters, restrictions on vote-by-mail, rules against felons voting, and other measures that states and municipalities have taken to guarantee the integrity of elections are, in fact, ‘restrictions on the right to vote.’” It also calls for nationwide vote-by-mail without a photo ID.
Other polls, in recent weeks, have indicated majority support for voter ID measures.
