As the debate over voter ID rages on in the U.S., a new database on voting rights worldwide compiled by the Crime Prevention Research Center found that such laws are the norm in Europe.
As John Lott, the CPRC’s founder, writes in the Daily Signal:
Of 47 nations surveyed in Europe—a place where, on other matters, American progressives often look to with envy—all but one country requires a government-issued photo voter ID to vote. The exception is the U.K., and even there voter IDs are mandatory in Northern Ireland for all elections and in parts of England for local elections. Moreover, Boris Johnson’s government recently introduced legislation to have the rest of the country follow suit.
Among the other findings were that 74% of European countries ban absentee voting for citizens who reside domestically. Of nations in the OECD, 33 of 37 require a photo ID to vote.
A recent Fox News poll found that “77 percent of voters nationally think ‘a valid form of state or federally issued photo identification to prove U.S. citizenship’ should be needed for voting. That’s down from a high of 85 percent who felt that way when Fox first asked the same survey question 10 years ago.” When broken down by race, 80% of whites support photo ID to vote and 16% oppose. The figures at 66% support/29% oppose for Blacks and 69% support/22% oppose for Hispanics.
If Democrats want to portray anyone supporting photo ID as “racist,” that includes the majority of their own voter base, and the majority of Blacks… whom they are accusing voter ID supporters of being racist against.
And that’s hardly the first poll to produce this finding:
- Pew Research Center, 2018: 76% support for photo ID to vote, 23% oppose.
- Gallup, 2016: 80% support, 18% oppose.
- Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 2021: 72% support, 13% oppose
In light of all that, how in the world is voter ID even remotely controversial?
Matt Palumbo is the author of Dumb and Dumber: How Cuomo and de Blasio Ruined New York, Debunk This: Shattering Liberal Lies, and Spygate
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