This presidential election has brought back the issue of strict voting laws, mainly strict voter identification laws. Strict voting identification is a topic that was first started during the election of 2008, but the disputes have started up again during these peak voting times of the election.

So far in the United States, 32 states have some sort of voter identification laws, but only some states actually require it. In 2012, only a few states had required voter ID, but from that time, the number of states have been steadily increasing. The voter identification laws were first passed in 2002, which made a request for voters to show their identification at the ballots.

The debate arose when people who were against strict voter ID laws challenged the courts with the claim that these voter identification laws discriminate against mainly black and Latino voters. They also challenged to help these groups that can’t afford photo identification just to be able to vote.

These strict voter identification laws are unfair because the laws discriminate against minority groups and groups that can’t afford the cost of photo ID. Many who support the strict voter identification laws claim that the laws make it so that the people who are general citizens could vote and will filter out people who are not allowed to vote from voting. Many supporters also claim that the enforcement of this law helps the government filter out the illegal residents of this country and actually get the vote of the legal citizens. I don’t think this way of thinking is correct. In a way, these laws do help to sort out through the illegal and legal citizens, but they also segregate legal citizens that can not afford to get the voter identification to vote. Many Americans who are in poverty can not afford to get identification. This system segregates a great population from them giving their opinion. Overall, the requirement for identification can leave out a large amount of people in this country from voting.

These voter ID laws really expose the format of the American republic. These laws can show how the richer do rule the poor. The people who can afford these photo identification cast their the votes, while people who cannot afford the photo ID get left out from voting. This system that many states enforce, in hindsight, could cause tensions that could lead to problems in future elections.

I think the solution to these problems is not to get rid of the voter identification laws entirely but to just weaken them. If they were taken all away it could cause problems in itself because that means illegal people could vote even though they should not be able to. If the laws were just weakened, many problems could be fixed.  Another solution is the government could just help finance the people who can afford the voter identification so they could vote like the rest of the population.

To finish, the strict voter identification laws should just be taken away or replaced with weaker laws.