Over the course of putting together this project, there have been a few moments where I was really taken aback. I will admit, when I began researching this topic, I expected to find more explicit examples of absolute voter suppression. What I mean by this is that I expected to see more instances of people getting turned away from the polls in high numbers because they didn't have the proper ID. 

 

 

What I have found, is that voter suppression created by voter ID laws is much more subtle, but more impactful than I imagined. People aren't being turned away at the polls in high numbers for not having the right ID because people without the right ID don't go to the polls. They stay home on election day rather than even trying because they don't think they can vote and don't want to invest the money, or the time it takes to get the necessary documents.

 

 

The suppression is so impactful because all of the marginalized voting groups vote relatively the same way. While the numbers vary from African Americans to poor Americans, both vote decidedly Democrat. In examining the 2016 election, we saw how even small-scale suppression can have massive implications. Tiny margins of victories in states with voter ID laws were common and decided the election. Voter ID laws helped Donald Trump, just as they help all Republicans win elections. 

 

 

The true absurdity of the whole conversation on voter ID laws is the fact that voter fraud just doesn't happen. The justification for the laws that are preventing these groups from voting is just not valid. Americans don't commit voter fraud. Yet state after state keeps working to implement laws to curb that nonexistent issue. It is completely backward, as voter ID laws do not make our elections more democratic, but rather less. 

 

 

Our elected officials represent all of us once they are in office, but not all of us are getting a say in who those elected officials are. 

 

 

I have found voting, or voter turnout specifically to be a difficult topic to write about because there are many reasons Americans do not cast a ballot on election day. For many, the electoral college has made them believe their vote does not matter, and many others don't care about the outcome enough to participate. While this is an issue that voter psychologists have struggled with for years, I don't think it is as important as the issue of voter id. We will never be able to convince all Americans to vote, but we must allow every American who wants to vote that opportunity.To do anything else would be un-American.

 

 

We, as the American electorate, need to regain our agency. The way the system is set up now makes it easier for politicians who are in office to retain their power. They don't need to work as hard to make all their voters happy. If they are republican, and in a state with voter ID, they just need to appeal to their base and get aided by laws that make it hard for the opposition to even vote.

 

 

But, and I can't stress this enough, this is not a Republican or Democrat issue. I know I have railed on Republicans because they are often the reason behind the existence of voter ID laws, but Republicans should be concerned with this trend as well. Because it is limiting the voice of all Americans.  Our politicians need to work for us, but more and more their only focus seems to be reelection. Let me show you what I mean by this.

 

 

In Wisconsin, which has a Republican-controlled state legislature, a Republican governor, and one republic senator, the majority of people want to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. 59% of voters favor expansion, while on 21% were appose. Clearly, this is what most of the people of Wisconsin want, and few oppose, so why hasn't it happened? Because, Republican politicians in states like Wisconsin, where voter ID laws favor Republicans in elections, don't feel the need to do something popular like expanding Medicaid because they feel too comfortable about the prospects of reelection. If their purgative was to do what the voters wanted, because they believed they would be voted out if they didn't, they would expand Medicaid. It wouldn't cost them anything, but they don't. This is what I mean by us as voters losing our agency. We have power, but they are rigging the system to restrict it, and we can't let that happen.  

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If more Americans voted, politicians would be forced to appease us to be reelected. The approval rating on Congress might get out of the low teens and our politicians would be forced to start working for us again.