North Carolina Ruling Inspires Tennessee Democrats To Renew Voter ID Repeal Effort

A federal ruling that North Carolina’s voter identification law is discriminatory has Democrats calling for another look at Tennessee’s requirements.

Democrats say the state’s 2011 voter ID law needs to be rolled back based on evidence it has suppressed turnout.

U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Mary Mancini and several Democrats in the state legislature pointed to low figures in this summer’s primary elections as the latest evidence voter ID requirements are more burdensome than their supporters let on.

They said the tide behind voter ID laws is reversing and it’s only a matter of time before the courts intervene.

“Remember the history on this. In a previous generation, it was called the poll tax,” said Cooper. “People wanted everybody to have to pay a price to vote.”

But Democrats did not lay out a strategy for putting Tennessee’s voter ID law back before the courts. They instead said they plan to file legislation repealing the laws next year, though they said such measures are unlikely to pass without significant support from Republicans.

Voters in Tennessee
must present a state-approved photo ID before casting their ballots. Exceptions can be made for people who cannot afford to get an ID, have a religious objection to being photographed, vote absentee, are hospitalized or vote in a nursing home or assisted living facility.

Both a
federal judge and the
Tennessee Supreme Court have ruled before that the state’s requirements are fair.

But Democrats point to a
General Accounting Office study released in 2014 that suggested Tennessee’s ID laws do keep people from voting. They also cited the North Carolina ruling, as well as similar decisions in
North Dakota,
Wisconsin and
Texas, to argue the state’s law should be resisted.

The Tennessee Republican Party, however, pointed to other data to show turnout has improved since 2004, the last time the state had an election for president but not one for the U.S. Senate and governor. Executive director Brent Leatherwood says turnout since then is up 59 percent.

“Given higher turnout, accessibility of free photo IDs for voters, and positive polling, TNDP is once again peddling an easily-refutable tale,” he said in a message posted to Twitter..

While the
@TNDP makes accusations, the numbers prove voters are turning out & polls show voters support voter ID–on a bipartisan basis.— Brent Leatherwood (@LeatherwoodTN)
August 2, 2016