Picture ID for voters is opposed
Dear Editor:
Tennessee Republican lawmakers have reached a new low in passing a repressive voter picture ID law. The problem is not requiring voter ID per se, the problem is requiring a picture ID that many voters do not have. Several studies show that one in 10 eligible voters lack this document and that 25 percent of them are African-Americans. It is apparent that since this group usually votes Democratic, that this law is designed to prevent them from voting.
In the recent presidential election nearly 8,000 Tennessee voters cast paper provisional ballots because of voter problems at the polls, of these group 5,474 votes were tossed out, most of them because of the picture ID law. This law worked as intended for Romney and the Republicans, as the Democrats lost nearly 2,000 votes for Obama in Shelby County alone and they won the state.
Voter fraud? Baloney! What’s next, the poll tax? Not one case of voter fraud has been proven in Tennessee. The voter ID law passed by a Republican supermajority in Tennessee is the most egregious assault on voting rights in my 65 years of voting and is an unconstitutional and shameful response to a non-existing problem.
Sincerely,
Homer White
1618 LeConte Drive
Maryville, TN 37803
