Voter ID is one of the most popular policy positions in America. Gallup consistently finds that about 80% of Americans support requiring photo identification to vote, including 62% of nonwhite respondents. Calling this Jim Crow insults the memory of people who faced fire hoses, attack dogs, literacy tests, and poll taxes.

The premise that voter ID suppresses minority votes doesn't survive contact with evidence. A comprehensive study by the National Bureau of Economic Research in 2019, examining every voter ID law implementation, found 'no evidence that strict ID requirements reduce minority turnout.' Turnout among Black voters actually increased in Georgia and Indiana after voter ID laws were implemented.

The comparison to Jim Crow is historically illiterate. Jim Crow literacy tests were intentionally impossible — they required subjective interpretation by racist registrars designed to fail Black applicants. A photo ID is an objective, achievable standard applied equally to everyone.

Americans already need photo ID for an extraordinary range of activities: buying alcohol, boarding a plane, opening a bank account, picking up prescriptions, entering federal buildings, purchasing a firearm, applying for welfare, starting a job (I-9 verification), renting an apartment, and buying a car. Nobody argues these requirements are racist.

The claim that minorities can't obtain ID is itself deeply patronizing. A series of street interviews by filmmaker Ami Horowitz went viral showing white liberals claiming Black people can't find the DMV or don't have internet, while Black respondents laughed at the absurdity of those assumptions.

36 of 47 European countries require government-issued photo ID to vote. Mexico, Brazil, and India all require voter ID. The U.S. is the outlier in not requiring it, not in moving toward it.

I fully support providing free IDs and making them easily accessible. That addresses any legitimate access concern while preserving election integrity.