Reddit reviews Statistical History of the American Electorate

Tennessee is currently one of nine states with strict photo ID requirements where a citizen cannot cast a ballot that will count without a specific kind of government issued photo ID. As many of the comments on here demonstrate, these strict photo ID laws are needed to prevent in person voter fraud. Of all the experimental, statistical, and qualitative studies examined in the 200 page September 2014 GAO report, a qualitative study from 2010 found 48 individuals charged with violating federal election laws from 1996-2005 (p. 67). But, that does not really matter. A thousand studies could be released confirming the results and it wouldn't make a difference because the claim being made simply cannot be falsified. The response will always be "well yeah, it's fraud, you are not going to catch it...so we have to work to reduce it...even though it will always be a threat because it can never be measured." It's essentially a claim that can never be defeated as the framing of the issue means you cannot disprove it, and it's hypothetical existence always justifies greater restrictions to prevent it. It really is an ingenious way to gain support for a policy, especially when you throw in the "fear of illegal aliens" - a fear that has rallied support around all kinds of repressive legislation.

So, What kind of company are the people supporting these restrictive voting laws in? Since the fraud issue cannot be disproven given that fraud can never be detected, lets see where the supporters of voter ID laws fall in an historical context.

The nine states with the most restrictive laws are Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, N. Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Do any of these states have a history with enacting restrictive voting laws? Between the dates of 1890-1918 the following states had in place the following restrictions:

• Alabama [poll tax, grandfather clause, old soldier clause, literacy test]
  
• Arkansas [poll tax (declared invalid in 1905...new one approved in 1907)]
  
• Mississippi [poll tax, literacy test]
  
• N. Carolina [poll tax, grandfather clause, literacy text]
  
• Tennessee [poll tax]
  
• Texas [poll tax]
  
  Wow, six of the current nine states with voter ID laws have also attempted to tackle that rascally issue of voter fraud. The poll tax seems like an especially popular method, with Mississippi setting the standard with its $2 poll tax for every citizen between the ages of 21 and 60, with the requirement that the tax receipt be presented in order to vote. At the time Mississippi's black population was 743,000 and the white population was 545,000. But hey, you have to pay money to buy alcohol and tobacco, or to buy gas and insurance to drive to a car, so why not have to pay to vote? I mean isn't that the argument with why voter ID laws are okay; equate the right to vote with privileges to trick your logic circuits in justifying the regulation? I mean who cares if the actual effects meant that in Alabama in 1900 only 3,000 of the 181,471 black males of voting age were registered to vote.
  
  It's called stopping voter fraud, and this fraud is so dangerous it should be stopped by any means possible or our entire democracy will surely crumble! But I understand, these states recognize that in the face of certain threats a persons constitutional liberty can be slightly encroached on. Wait, eight of those nine states do not require any form of ID or background check for two private individuals to engage in a handgun sale. What the FUCK?!?! Are you telling me the threat of voter fraud is so severe that the states put restrictions on the right to vote, but actual fucking gun related deaths are not enough to constitute any infringement on the right to bear arms?! Does not fucking compute!!