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The Supreme Court is set to
discuss on Wednesday whether the voter ID law could alter the voting process in
the United States. The disputed law adopted by Indiana stated that in order to
avoid fraud, voters should present a current government-issued photo ID, but
contesters and critics say that this will discourage Americans, especially the
disabled, minorities, the homeless or the poor people who may lack ID but are
willing and have the constitutional right to vote.
Considering how “daunting” the
process of getting an ID is for some American citizens, the opponents of the
law argue that there haven’t been any cases of fraud in Indiana that would call
for adopting such a law, and that this would only raise delicate issues, like
discrimination, and even discourage the voters. Critics also argue that the law
is meant to disadvantage the Democrats, as the Republicans are the one
insisting upon it.
But Indiana officials are
convinced the law will be approved as constitutional. Indiana Secretary of
State Todd Rokita said according to CNNPolitics.com: “The real question is,
does it disenfranchise anyone? After six elections in the state of Indiana, the
answer has been no … That’s why the opponents to this keep losing in court. They
have not been able to produce the person that was truly disenfranchised yet.”
The voter ID law has been highly
discussed across the country. Not all of them are still standing: the law had
been declared unconstitutional in Missouri, but Georgia, Arizona and Michigan adopted
them. The state’s solicitor general wrote to the Supreme Court: “the Indiana
Voter ID Law establishes reasonable, long-overdue election-security reform in a
State highly vulnerable to in-person election fraud.”
While a decision is expected to
be made, Indiana state representatives reject any argument that it is a
discriminatory law, making “sinister efforts to disfranchise voters” as
petitioners said. “The voter ID law represents a reasonable, non-discriminatory
exercise of elections clause authority that, just as the founders envisioned,
take account of ‘change in the situation of the country’ and advances the
agenda of election modernization,” the Indiana state officials wrote.
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