Do voter laws bring back Jim Crow?

The statement

"The Republicans … want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws and literally — and very transparently — block access to the polls to voters who are more likely to vote for Democratic candidates than Republican candidates."

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democratic National Committee chairwoman

Republicans in Florida and across the country are pushing tighter voter laws ahead of the 2012 presidential election that they say will better combat fraud.

But when do those additional restrictions go too far?

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the new Democratic National Committee chairwoman and a congresswoman from South Florida, raised the point recently with a powerful analogy.

"The Republicans … want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws and literally — and very transparently — block access to the polls to voters who are more likely to vote for Democratic candidates than Republican candidates," she told Roland Martin, an African-American political commentator for CNN and the host of a weekly public affairs show on the TV One cable network.

The reference to Jim Crow — the primary tool that supported segregation and white supremacy in the South between the 1880s and the 1960s — got her in trouble from Republicans who said her comments suggested the GOP was racist.

As a result, she took the comparison back.

"Jim Crow was the wrong analogy to use," she said.

For us at PolitiFact, that would normally be the end of it.

But we decided to make an exception because: (1) election laws figure to be prominent over the next year and; (2) because some people don't think Wasserman Schultz was altogether wrong.

• • •

There's a case to be made for arguing that the current crop of voter laws are similar to Jim Crow laws.

• Voting restrictions were the linchpin of Jim Crow. Preventing blacks from voting enabled the subsequent imposition of other segregationist laws. "Exclusion from the franchise was the centerpiece of the system that was put in place in the late 19th century," said Robert Korstad, a Duke University historian.

• Like Jim Crow laws, the new laws are likely to diminish the voter pool. Though the extent is uncertain, most experts agree that some people who would otherwise want to vote will be disenfranchised. And many agree that minorities will be hit disproportionately.

Voter ID laws | Jim Crow | Voter ID is no Jim Crow -- I would know ...

Having experienced the psychological pain of Jim Crow laws first-hand, I won’t allow those who likely only read about Jim Crow in history books to trivialize it.

That’s why I’m outraged about a recent edition of TV One’s “Washington Watch” in which host Roland Martin and Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) compared state-level voter identification rules to Jim Crow.

To the contrary, requiring valid identification in exchange for something as sacred as a ballot is a pragmatic approach to governing.

Martin mused: “We talk about [voting being] the fundamental right [of] Americans, but to put roadblocks up to… for… voting makes no sense to me.” Wasserman Shultz replied, “Now you have the Republicans, who want to literally drag us back to Jim Crow laws and literally — and very transparently — blocked access to the polls.”

It’s an insult to the intelligence and integrity of the American people, especially black Americans, to play the race card where race is not an issue.

We are required to have a state-issued driver’s license for many daily activities. Besides specifically verifying a person can operate a motor vehicle, it’s used for everything from access to buildings to birthday discounts.

In most cases, voter ID laws allow multiple forms of photo ID (including workplace ID badges), and some states even accept utility bills. When valid ID is lacking, almost all states allow provisional ballots or votes cast after someone signs an affidavit or provides personal information available on voter rolls.

I’ve been voting since 1970, and I’ve always taken my driver’s license with me to the polling place to identify myself to the election judges. It seems like a common-sense thing whether it is required or not.

I find it appalling and unconscionable, if the claim is true, that 25 percent of voting age blacks lack valid government-issued photo ID. It’s not like they’re hard to get. My 12-year-old daughter got one for airport security. It would seem harder to avoid having proper identifying documentation than not these days.

The problem with liberals is they want to be paternal and involve themselves in the manipulation of black Americans’ right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If 25 percent of black Americans don’t have valid ID, they obviously don’t want one. The onus should be placed on them to obtain one. It is their personal responsibility to be productive citizens. If cost is a problem, as some claim, why aren’t deep-pocketed liberals making this problem their charity of choice?

Life under the Jim Crow laws

From Jim Crow to civil rights, the Supreme Court and the struggle for racial equality

The strange career of Jim Crow

Jumpin' Jim Crow, southern politics from Civil War to civil rights

The Jim Crow Laws and Racism in American History