Can I see some ID? What's behind all the new state voter ID laws, and what effect will they have on the 2012 election?

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: NATIONAL

Huey Fischer, a sophomore at the University of Texas, has every intention of voting in the presidential election this November. But Texas's new voter ID law--if it withstands a federal challenge--will make it more complicated than he expected.

The law requires voters to show a government-issued photo ID--like a driver's license or passport--that matches the address on voter registration rolls. That makes it harder to vote not only for out-of-state students, but also for Texas students with driver's licenses from their hometowns.

"It's a huge deal," says Fischer, 19, who's from Rockport on the Gulf Coast, a four-hour drive from Austin, where he goes to school.

Texas is one of 14 states that have passed laws requiring a photo ID to cast a ballot. And this year, legislatures in 27 states are considering voter ID laws, including 13 states that currently have no voter ID requirements, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

"The trend started a few years ago, but really accelerated in 2011 in anticipation of the 2012 election," says Richard Hasen, a professor of law and politics at the University of California, Irvine.

Republicans, who control most of the state governments enacting the new laws, say the rules are necessary to prevent voter fraud, and question why photo ID should be routinely required at airports but not at polling sites.

'Rollback in Voting Rights'?

Democrats counter that the new laws are a solution in search of a problem, since voter fraud--particularly voter impersonation, which is what IDs aim to prevent--is rare. They worry that the laws will discourage, or even block, eligible voters.

An estimated 21 million Americans-many of them poor, elderly, black, or Hispanic--don't have government ID cards. And many of them tend to vote Democratic. Previously, voters were often able to use other forms of identification, like student IDs, bank statements, utility bills, and Social Security cards.

A new study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law concludes that the new laws "could make it significantly harder for more than 5 million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012."

Just how much impact the laws will have is a question. Republicans note that since Georgia and Indiana passed laws several years ago requiring voters to have photo IDs, voter turnout in those states has actually improved.

Civil rights groups worry that the ID requirements will disproportionately prevent minorities...