According to the United State Constitution, the right to vote in our democracy in order to elect our country’s leaders is an inalienable right afforded to all citizens of this country. That there is still a debate about access to this right, particularly egged on by the very people who often tout the Constitution when enacting other discriminatory bills and laws, simply lends credence to the fact that our country is moving more rapidly backward, than forward.
On Monday, May 15, the Supreme Court of the United States announced that it rejected the appeal to reinstate North Carolina’s rightfully controversial voter identification law, which required all voters to present a state-approved form of ID at the polls, reduced the number of early voting days and eliminated same-day registration.
The law, which disproportionately targeted black voters in North Carolina, was initially shot down in July 2016, by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. This decision was contested by former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, who publicly supported the law when it passed in 2013.
Although the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the appeal to reinstate the law is a vastly positive step toward voter equality and voting rights, North Carolina’s Republican lawmakers have already stated that the fight is not over. Their continued desire to restrict access to voting is telling of deeper issues within our state legislature.
The official reasoning behind the original voter ID law was that the law would ensure thorough protection from in-person voter fraud — a problem that the GOP apparently felt was enough of a threat to their political standings. According to the Washington Post and other publications, however, in-person voter fraud is, in fact, a phantom threat; absentee ballots pose a greater threat of fraudulent votes, and even then, many cases of fraud are often accidental cases.
In February 2016, Logan Graham chronicled his experience of getting an approved, state-issued ID to vote in the presidential primary elections. Graham, originally from Colorado, explained the arduous process of acquiring a valid ID in order to exercise his inalienable right as a citizen to vote. He pointed out that for low income citizens, and even full-time students, the process of getting an ID could mean the loss of at least an entire day’s pay, or missing at least an entire day of classes.
NC State welcomes approximately 10 percent of our students from outside the state, according to College Portraits. That means that approximately 10 percent of our students are from states or U.S. territories other than North Carolina. I’m not assuming that all of those students are U.S. citizens, but surely many of them are, meaning that they would have required a state-issued ID in order to vote in last year’s primaries while avoiding an absentee ballot.
As college students, it is our job to educate ourselves and take action within our democracy — our votes decide our own future. A voter ID law, whether it’s the one we had, reinstated, or a newly written one, endangers our ability as students, and as citizens, to make decision about and have a say in our government, and our opportunities as contributing members of society.
The Supreme Court’s decision is a positive one, and a big victory in the fight for voting rights, but it does not mean that we can become complacent in the face of other threats to our democracy, and our right to exercise our vote.
