YAHOO NEWS: How strict new voter ID laws in key swing states could play a deciding factor in the 2024 election

BY MIKE BEBERNES, YAHOO NEWS — OCTOBER 10, 2024

Millions of voters throughout the United States will face tougher identification requirements when they head to the polls next month thanks to a wave of new laws that have been enacted since the 2020 election.

While experts say voter ID laws won’t be the most important factor in the presidential election, many believe they play a crucial role in what is expected to be an incredibly tight race.

“Because we use the Electoral College … if we do anything that suppresses turnout, really from any group, that’s going to change the outcome,” said Andrea Benjamin, an associate professor of African and African American Studies at the University of Oklahoma, who has studied the impact of voter ID laws.

Eight states, home to 29 million people of voting age, have either imposed voter identification requirements for the first time or made existing rules tougher since the last presidential election. With those new laws in place, twelve states now have what are classified as strict voter ID laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, meaning that many people who lack proper identification will not be able to vote. Another two dozen states ask voters to show ID but offer workarounds that still allow those without it to cast ballots.

Four of the seven swing states that will likely determine the winner in the presidential election — Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Wisconsin — have strict voter ID laws on the books and polls suggest each of them could be decided by a razor-thin margin.

“I don’t think it’s getting the attention that it deserves given the impact it’s going to have on the election,” said Ceridwen Cherry, legal director for VoteRiders, a nonpartisan organization that helps people navigate the process of acquiring the IDs they need to vote.

Read the full article at Yahoo News.