Voter ID Causes No Furor Around the Globe | Eastern NC Now

John Lott writes at Real Clear Investigations about inconvenient facts for American opponents of voter ID.

ENCNow
Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the John Locke Foundation. The author of this post is Mitch Kokai.

    John Lott writes at Real Clear Investigations about inconvenient facts for American opponents of voter ID.

  • Democrats and much of the media are pushing to make permanent the extraordinary, pandemic-driven measures to relax voting rules during the 2020 elections - warning anew of racist voter "suppression" otherwise. Yet democracies in Europe and elsewhere tell a different story - of the benefits of stricter voter ID requirements after hard lessons learned.
  • A database on voting rules worldwide compiled by the Crime Prevention Research Center, which I run, shows that election integrity measures are widely accepted globally, and have often been adopted by countries after they've experienced fraud under looser voting regimes.
  • Of 47 nations surveyed in Europe - a place where, on other matters, American progressives often look to with envy - all but one country requires a government-issued photo voter ID to vote. The exception is the U.K., and even there voter IDs are mandatory in Northern Ireland for all elections and in parts of England for local elections. Moreover, Boris Johnson's government recently introduced legislation to have the rest of the country follow suit.
  • Criticisms of the British leader's voter ID push are similar to those heard in the U.S. The Scottish National Party claims his voter ID push targets "lower income, ethnic minority and younger people" who are less likely to vote for Johnson's conservatives and therefore represents "Trump-like voter suppression."
  • Yet despite such pushback, Britain looks set to follow countries in Europe and elsewhere with stricter voting regimes, few of which temporarily relaxed any of their voting rules during the pandemic.
  • Seventy-four percent of European countries entirely ban absentee voting for citizens who reside domestically. Another 6% limit it to those hospitalized or in the military, and they require third-party verification and a photo voter ID. Another 15% require a photo ID for absentee voting.

Go Back


Leave a Guest Comment

Your Name or Alias
Your Email Address ( your email address will not be published )
Enter Your Comment ( text only please )




John Locke Foundation: Prudent Policy / Impeccable Research - Volume DCXXXV John Locke Foundation Guest Editorial, Editorials, Op-Ed & Politics Fauci’s Emails Come Back To Bite Him


HbAD0

Latest Op-Ed & Politics

If you are covering Roy Cooper in Greensboro today, please consider the following statement from the Republican National Committee:
Obama and Biden judges abuse power for political reasons to try to stop Haitian deportations
teachers union rally held on major socialist / communist May Day holiday

HbAD1

Democrats foment climate of violence against Trump and GOP
Cheryl Hines. Dennis Quaid. Nicki Minaj. All became associated with the Trump administration. What happened next?
A federal grand jury in North Carolina has indicted former FBI Director James Comey on two charges related to making threats against President Donald Trump.
Their goal was simple: to put a Planned Parenthood in every mailbox in America.
Treasury officials allege these groups pose as humanitarian entities while covertly siphoning donations to Hamas.
President Donald Trump has publicly floated regime change and other aggressive actions toward Cuba.
With a new roadside plaque unveiled in Ellerbe on April 23, legendary wrestler and local resident André René Roussimoff is finally getting the formal recognition fans believe he deserves.

HbAD2

Following a string of attacks, critics are calling for denaturalizations. It's not that simple.
Understanding how parties work is important for making informed decisions regarding elected officials.
The solution is not to legalize the problem; it is to enforce the law consistently and deter future illegal immigration.
The teachers union is pushing to cancel school on May 1 as Chicago public schools continue to report dismal student proficiency rates.

HbAD3

 
 
Back to Top