Prop 39: Securing our elections? Or voter suppression?

LBCC student voter ID laws are on the ballot in California this November via Prop 39, which would prohibit students from voting in-person without presenting a government-issued ID, and invalidate mail-in ballots missing the last four digits of a government-issued ID number. 

Prop 39, to put it simply, is an unnecessary and redundant ballot measure that disproportionately affects minority groups and is disguised as a measure advocating for more secure elections, despite just miniscule voter fraud happening nationwide.

On the surface, voter ID seems like a reasonable and innocent idea, but in reality, all voter ID laws do is negatively affect Black, Indigenous, elderly, poor and student voters.

Supporters say that voter ID’s aim is to solve voter fraud, despite that being an essentially non-existent problem in the United States.

According to the Brennan Center, the rate of in-person voter impersonation is 0.00004% of all ballots cast, and still happens at a lower rate than other forms of voter fraud.

Measures are already in place that keep elections secure, there isn’t any need for even more regulations on voting.

Restrictive voting laws have been around since the Jim Crow era, with poll taxes and literacy tests among the many laws enacted to dissuade predominantly Black people from voting. 

Those laws were deemed unconstitutional after the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but that hasn’t stopped the right from trying to find new ways to stop those same groups from voting, one of those ways being voter ID laws.

An acceptable photo ID is not as common as some may think, with 18% of citizens older than 65, 16% of Latinos, 25% of Blacks and 15% of low-income Americans all lacking an acceptable ID according to the League of Women Voters.

Many of those people lack the availability and resources to obtain an acceptable ID, whether it’s cost prohibitive, not accessible or just lacking the paperwork required to get an ID. 

These groups combined make up a significant portion of the electorate, and voter ID through Prop 39 would disenfranchise most of if not all of them.

Supporters of voter ID also claim that the laws are to keep undocumented people from voting in American elections.

However, anyone registering to vote in California must already show a government issued-ID or the last four numbers of their Social Security number, a test that most if not every undocumented immigrant would struggle to pass.

This is where the law becomes redundant. If voters need to show an ID to prove they can register, why should they need to show it again to prove they can vote?

_{Vacant ballot marking devices (BMDs) inside the vote center at the Wardlow Park Recreation Center in Long Beach on Oct. 29. Those who wish to vote in person use the machines to fill out and cast their ballots. (Connor Aguirre)}

When voters go to the polls in-person in Los Angeles County, poll workers can verify their registration eligibility on the Electronic Pollbook in seconds, and workers require that voters verify their year of birth before they are given a ballot. 

Safeguards are already in place to keep elections secure, while also keeping them accessible, something that Prop 39 fails to do. 

Any proposition that can disenfranchise thousands of voters should not be allowed to pass, especially in California, a state that people look to as a safe haven from less diverse states.

The voting rights for thousands, including many LBCC students, are on the line with this measure, and Prop 39 should not be allowed to pass.

Polling locations at both LAC and TTC campuses opened for early voting on Saturday and will remain open until election day on Tuesday Nov. 3.

LBCC students are free to vote there or at any other voting center in Los Angeles County, find your nearest polling place at locator.lavote.gov.