U.S. Public Supports Voter ID Laws, Early Voting

A survey recently published by Gallup shows that a large share of Americans is in favor of laws requiring voters to show photo ID, but also support early voting. More than three quarters of adult respondents said they were for these two measures of which the first one is commonly championed by the Republican Party, while the latter has been a cause largely associated with Democrats.

The rest of the survey shows the public’s opinion aligning more closely with positions commonly associated with the Democratic Party. Between 60 and 65 percent of respondents said they would like to see automatic voter registration as well as absentee ballot applications sent out automatically to all voters. Purging inactive voters from the rolls and limiting the number of drop-off boxes for absentee ballots, however, saw less support with around 60 percent of Americans saying they were against it.

At the moment, eight states conduct all-mail elections, but all go a step further and mail an absentee ballot to all voters straight away instead of only an application for one. A majority of states employs early voting, with windows ranging from 5-46 days before election day.

While requiring photo ID for voting is widespread around the world, the U.S. is in a special position regarding this requirement as it lacks a uniform national ID card that many other countries give out or even require their citizens to hold. In the U.S., people who don’t drive and don’t travel and therefore don’t have a driver’s license or passport are less likely to hold a photo ID than in other places. Opponents of voting laws requiring photo ID argue that they discriminate against marginalized and poor communities in the context of the specific U.S. ID landscape.