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Cohen Introduces Legislation to Protect Voting Rights of Tennesseans

October 23, 2013

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today introduced the Voter ID Accessibility Act to mitigate the harmful and potentially disenfranchising effects of the unfair, burdensome and restrictive Tennessee voter ID law. Late last week, the Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the law, which requires Tennesseans to present selected photographic identification—including gun permits and hunting licenses but excluding photographic library cards—in order to cast a ballot. The state’s list of acceptable IDs has been called “unfair and deliberately unequal” by civil rights leaders.

“The goal of restrictive state voter ID policies, like our Tennessee law, is—plain and simple—to make it harder for minorities, the elderly, and young people to exercise a Constitutional right that we in this country hold sacred: the right to participate in the democratic process by casting a ballot,” said Congressman Cohen. “Supporters of laws like these claim they are necessary to prevent fraud, though little evidence of voter fraud exists and the few cases that do pale in comparison to the thousands of voters at risk of being disenfranchised because of the new laws. This ‘cure’ is worse than the imagined disease.”

The Voter ID Accessibility Act would mitigate some of the unfair effects of restrictive state voter ID laws by amending the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, commonly referred to as the “Motor Voter Law,” to expand access to photo identification in states that require it for voting. Congressman Cohen’s legislation would ensure that state and federal offices that provide public assistance—which already offer visitors the opportunity to register to vote—also notify individuals of their state’s voter ID mandate and offer them the opportunity to obtain suitable identification free of charge.

“The history of our nation is one of expanding access to voting, not restricting it—and voter ID laws are steps in the wrong direction,” the Congressman continued.My Voter ID Accessibility Act will put our country back on the right path and help the citizens of Tennessee—as well as every state with restrictive and burdensome voting laws—exercise their right to vote by providing better access to the information and documentation needed to do so.”

Earlier this month, the federal judge who wrote the majority opinion in a ruling that is widely credited with allowing restrictive state voter ID laws to go forward stated that the decision was wrong and the law it was based on is “now widely regarded as a means of voter suppression rather than of fraud prevention.” Congressman Cohen has long worked to mitigate the effects of these laws, both in Tennessee and around the nation. After the U.S. Supreme Court eviscerated portions of the landmark Voting Rights Act earlier this year, he urged the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to use its authorities to ensure that the voting rights of all Americans remained protected. The DOJ has since challenged the newly-passed laws in North Carolina and Texas voting laws in federal court.