According to major polls including Pew Research and Gallup, around 81% of Americans support the idea of photo identification being used when somebody goes to vote.
Under Gov. DeSantis, Florida’s new elections laws enhance that process and increase penalties for those that ballot harvest. To guard against fraud, the laws require existing voter registration record to be updated to ensures each voter’s identity and eligibility. DeSantis also wants local elections supervisors to clean up voter rolls annually, removing dead people from the voting rolls.
But U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, appointed by President Joe Biden in 2021, has vowed to go after voter I.D. laws in states such Florida.
Currently, 36 states currently have some form of a voter ID law.
Garland pledged to fight voter ID laws and other election integrity measures that he deemed “discriminatory, burdensome, and unnecessary.”
Democrats opposing ID laws claim such laws create more challenges for millions of eligible voters to vote.
The League of Women Voters of Florida, which has been accused of being a front group for the Florida Democratic Party, opposed these new provisions Gov. DeSantis signed into law. They say ID laws, along with other provisions in Florida’s new election laws, will put more restrictions on people casting their ballots.
Florida Daily legal commentator Ron Davis doesn’t see it that way.
“You need an ID when you buy a gun, deposit your social security check, or board an airplane,” Davis said. “Why? Because we don’t want any fraud to take place, as the same practice should apply when it comes to voting.”
Garland and other Democrats will center their opposition to voter ID based on a perspective that implies such ID laws are racially motivated. The Attorney General’s office has already doubled the number of lawyers in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division.
Davis says look for Democrats to challenge ID laws and GOP-backed legislation on voting issues related to mail-in voting and the use of drop boxes.
