Despite What the Left Would Lead You to Believe, the Boogeyman Does Not Exist

The North Carolina voter ID law is in the process of being challenged in court by leftist opponents from all over the state and beyond. They continue to contest voter ID laws with everything they can due to their stated belief that it will disenfranchise voters or more cynically, as a strategy to turn out their base. 

Let’s get something really clear; the argument that voters are turned away from the polls by lack of an ID is a flat out falsehood. Look back to 2014, when the NY Times noted that the arguments fall flat on their face. Yet, they continue their attack, dreaming up exaggerated numbers of those "potentially" affected, fear mongering, and encouraging racial divide and for what?

For now their focus is on NC as they continue to waste taxpayer money and judicial resources, all the while claiming that laws drafted and passed by state legislators to ensure the integrity of our election process are disenfranchising voters. As Opposing Views points out, here comes the boogeyman.

To hear those who oppose IDs tell it, voter ID laws are designed by malicious Republicans in back rooms, cackling as they take entire Democrat-leaning neighborhoods and cities out of play. According to the same people, poor and minority voters will be turned away by the hundreds or thousands as they try to vote, resulting in mass disenfranchisement.

That's a fantasy, or more appropriately, a boogeyman. Out of 36 states that have passed some form of voter ID law, there have been no instances of people turned away from the voting booth en masse. Sixteen of those states request IDs, but don't require them if voters can prove their identity by other means. Another 17 states don't require any form of identification.

In North Carolina, where officials are readying for the first year ballots are cast under a new voter-protection law, people without IDs can still vote if they can prove their identity by other means. They don't need driver's licenses to prove their identity -- they can vote with state-issued ID cards, military IDs or passports. Most states offer free help to voters who don't have photo IDs. All they have to do is reach out ahead of time.

Stopping vote fraud ensures a fair election system that both sides of the aisle should be vigorously pursuing. Citizens are "carded" for various reasons every single day in this country. The list is expansive and continuing to grow: the bank, the grocery store, flights, driving, and even work. 

Requiring voter ID is something so basic that it should have been put in place a long time ago.