One of the top two candidates for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination has called the nation's first black president the "food stamp president." The other supports an immigration policy of "self-deportation," a strategy that effectively aims to make the lives of illegal immigrants so difficult in the United States that they go back home. But such instances of racism in our national politics ought not to blind us to less overt but equally invidious racism here in Rhode Island. This election cycle, Rhode Island will implement its freshly minted voter identification law, a racially discriminatory law with potentially devastating consequences. We ask the General Assembly and Gov. Lincoln Chafee '75 P'14 to repeal it.
Last summer, the General Assembly passed a bill, later signed into law by Chafee, that requires all voters to provide government-issued identification at election locations. The policy took effect at the beginning of 2012, and will be first implemented at the Rhode Island Republican primary April 24. Starting in 2014, all voters will be required to show photo identification.
After condemnations from the NAACP and ACLU, Rep. Charlene Lima, D-Cranston, has proposed a bill to eliminate the voter identification law. We applaud her courage and support her effort to eradicate an antidemocratic law before it becomes entrenched in Rhode Island political life.
There have been few substantiated reports of voter fraud in Rhode Island. On the other hand, racial minorities, the elderly and the poor are least likely to have photo identification. Voter identification laws are therefore tools of disenfranchisement under the false pretense of maintaining free and fair elections. Systematic disenfranchisement, through strategies such as literacy tests and poll taxes, were central to excluding blacks from voting in the Jim Crow South. It is distressing to see attitudes we thought were rejected after the Civil Rights movement reappear today, and it is especially puzzling to see a voter identification law passed in a state controlled by Democrats, historically the party more inclined to oppose these forms of racial discrimination.
Some recent articles, particularly one written by Simon van Zuylen-Wood '11 in the New Republic, suggest that legislators garnered support for the voter identification law by capitalizing on fears of Rhode Island's growing Hispanic population. We agree with this claim, and believe that this anxiety has been accentuated by the state's unemployment problem. Hispanics have become an easy scapegoat for individuals mired in tough economic times, and we are disappointed in the many interest groups, legislators and citizens who have exploited them for political gain.
Lima has pointed out that the bill will likely cost the state anywhere "between $1.6 million and $4.9 million." Yet, this is not a matter of economics — this is a civil rights issue. This is about a government that needs to follow through on its mandate to help the most vulnerable members of its constituency, not alienate or systematically disenfranchise them. And this is about Rhode Island setting an example for the rest of the country that we will not accept thinly veiled bigotry. We urge state lawmakers to act urgently and repeal this law.
Editorials are written by The Herald's editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
