By Susan Duclos
Lost in the firestorm of the Romney/Ryan announcement on August 11, 2012, was a poll result release from Washington Post on the controversial voter ID laws being passed throughout the country which Democrats, including Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, are fighting against in courts in courts, claiming that requiring a photo ID would suppress voters.
Question: In your view, should voters in the United States be required to show official, government-issued photo identification -- such as a drivers license -- when they cast ballots on Election Day, or shouldn't they have to do this?
An overwhelming majority, 74 percent believe photo ID should be required and 23 percent believe it should not.
Another interesting set of questions which the response levels may surprise some is based on how the two sides of the issues, Republicans in favor of voter ID laws and Democrats opposing it, are perceived by the public:
Question: To what extent, if at all, do you think SUPPORT for voter identification laws is based on genuine interest in fair elections
56 percent said a great deal or a good amount, 28 percent said just some, 13 percent chose none at all, with 3 percent offering no opinion.
(Note- The results page says the number is 57 percent, but adding all the numbers together only totals 101 and the individual figures shown [30 +26] totals the 56 percent listed above )
Compared to:
Question: To what extent, if at all, do you think OPPOSITION to voter identification laws is based on genuine interest in fair elections
48 percent said a "great deal" or a "good amount," 30 percent said "just some," 18 percent chose "none at all" and 4 percent offered "no opinion."
49 percent believe the bigger concern is voter fraud and 44 percent believe it is "denying eligible voters the right to vote."
The questioning for the results in the preceding sentence is ambiguous because voter ID laws do not deny any eligible voters the right to vote, they simply demand those voter show ID to prove who they are and that they do have the legal right to vote.
Results for the Washington Post Poll found here.
In April 2012, Rasmussen found that 73 percent of U.S. likely voters say that requiring a photo ID to vote does not discriminate.