Many of the states that passed strict Voter ID laws were forced to provide free IDs for voting purposes, which is an expense to every taxpayer:

This sort of thing is everywhere, too. Here in DC the homeowners in old, wealthy Georgetown didn’t want a metro station because they feared that it would allow ‘undesirables’ to travel to their neighbourhood. Joke’s on them: now they’re cut off from public transportation and the roads in their area are a nightmare to…

People of color are:

Dodgers Stadium in LA, same thing.

Voter ID laws are the definition of institutionalized racism.

I come from a country with direct democracy (meaning, we get to vote on pretty much everything). There are no voter ID laws on the books there, instead every voter gets the voting utensils sent to their home to be filled out and either placed in a ballot box leading up to the election or sent via the postal service…

You could choose not to read it. The title didn’t mention cool cars, so you should know it was about infrastructure. 

voter ID = poll tax is really all that needs to be said, so kudos for the comparison.

If a legislature is going to enact a voter ID law, then it should provide the ID cards when someone registers in the first place.

People of color in cities are often too poor to get an ID. You act like getting an ID is simple and cheap.

This is where intention and reality collide.

If they made the IDs freely and *easily* available to all, I’d have no issue with it.

Thank you for such a concise and outstanding explanation of why voter ID laws are racist. And for your patience of explaining it, repeatedly, in this thread. Too often I find myself rage-typing, and it’s nice to see such a measured and intellectual (and calm) response. 

Thanks for writing this. While living in St. Louis, I have also observed similar ways in which infrastructure was intentionally designed to destroy black neighborhoods. I-70 between downtown and I-270 cuts through several formerly thriving areas. I-55 south of downtown cut through several Native American mounds. A…

Saying, “I need an ID to buy a candy bar with my credit card so why shouldn’t I need my ID to vote,” is a false equivalence, but it has the appeal of being logically sound on the surface. And that’s why politicians have found voter ID laws to be such a potent weapon.

Its not just highways.

It’s not false. Detroit and and the suburbs run two separate systems. Also, some suburban communities have opted out of the bus service specifically because of unproven fears that the “poor Detroit blacks” would take buses to their communities, rob them, and then go back into the “lawless” city. This is a bullshit…

I have to respectfully disagree and point out that voter ID laws are objectively racist in that they disproportionately effect poor communities of color.

I’ve spent a good deal of time living in multiple states in the south and I’ve seen racist infrastructure a few times. Apologies if my stories seem to shit on NC, this is just my experience, I know a lot of good folk who live there.

100% honest story with zero bullshit. Thank you for writing this.