It is hard to believe that – on the 95th anniversary of the 19th Amendment that gave women the vote – women are still fighting for the right to cast their ballots unhindered by restrictive voter ID laws.
The Suffragist movement, which began in the mid-19th century, culminated in victory with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution on Aug. 19, 1920. Yet women, African Americans and other minority groups still face unnecessary hurdles to the voting booth.
As the National Organization for Women (NOW) reported last year, “Voter ID laws have a disproportionately negative effect on women. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, one third of all women have citizenship documents that do not identically match their current names primarily because of name changes at marriage. Roughly 90 percent of women who marry adopt their husband’s last name. That means that roughly 90 percent of married female voters have a different name on their ID than the one on their birth certificate. An estimated 34 percent of women could be turned away from the polls unless they have precisely the right documents.”
For women of color, voter ID laws are particularly onerous. “For women in the low-wage workforce — approximately two-thirds of whom are women of color — the time and cost of acquiring a photo ID are real barriers,” reports TalkPoverty.org.
It is sad to consider that today – 50 years after President Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act that was designed to end racial discrimination at the voting booth – we are still fighting right-wing efforts to roll back that law, making it harder for women and other groups to exercise their Constitutional right to vote. The solution is to pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015.
It is about time to eliminate all barriers that make it more difficult for women – and anyone else – to vote when there is no credible evidence that such restrictions are needed. Learn more from the League of Women Voters about how voter ID laws continue to impact women.
For more on the 19th Amendment, click here.