You need it to buy cold medicine, donate blood, or attend a Kamala Harris rally.
Just don’t ask for ID when deciding who has control over the nuclear codes. At least, not in California.
That would be racist. So says Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
In her 2012 speech to the Democratic National Convention, “Karen Bass spoke out against voter ID laws that have been criticized for disenfranchising minorities.”
“Today, one of the darkest shadows of the past century is creeping into this one: one of our most basic rights—the right to vote, a right that we fought for and won—is under attack,” Bass, then a member of Congress, said of efforts to require voter ID.
Voter ID laws aren’t about racism. They’re about preserving Democrats’ power in solidly blue states like California. According to the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures, 36 states require some form of identification at the polls. If states are just too provincial, how about international data? At least 170 countries have voter ID laws.
Take one example that Mayor Bass can appreciate: Ghana.
In West Africa’s second-most populous country (and the country where L.A. Mayor Karen Bass was junketing while L.A. burned), before you can cast your ballot, you must go through a 4-step voter registration process. Step 1, according to the Ghana Electoral Commission’s website: Present a valid ID.
“For you to register as a voter, you must present a valid National ID Card to the registration center in your electoral area,” explains the Electoral Commission of Ghana on its information page of where and how to vote.
Republicans in Congress would be wise to follow the lead of Ghana and the rest of the world by adopting a national voter ID law as part of a comprehensive election integrity law. A law that requires voters to show some form of ID is so commonsense that most people in red states – and around the world – are shocked to discover that not every U.S. state requires voter ID.
It’s a winning issue with broad support among Democrats, Republicans and independents that is desperately needed to restore the American people’s faith and trust in the electoral process.
First, let’s correct the record on a racist trope that originated with the Democrat Party: states’ rights to control federal elections. Although the time, place, and manner of elections is prescribed to the states, the U.S. Constitution explicitly protects Congress’ right to “at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.”
Congress has the authority to regulate federal elections. It’s exercised this power repeatedly with the passage of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
About the Voting Rights Act of 1965. None other than 17 racist Democrats pushed the states’ right argument when Democrats opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Check the Senate roll call vote for yourself. On May 26, 1965, 17 Senate Democrats opposed the landmark civil rights law compared to just 2 Republicans. In the spirit of the Voting Rights Act, a national voter ID law would restore the integrity of elections.
Poll after poll, decade after decade, has shown a national voter ID law is a winning issue supported by the American people. In 2021, a Monmouth University survey found 80 percent of Americans, including 91 percent of Republicans, 87 percent of independents, and 62 percent of Democrats support a law that requires a photo ID to vote stands. That number hasn’t changed in recent years. A nationwide Pew Research Center survey in January 2024 similarly found dominant support– 81 percent of American adults – support voter ID laws.
Even in California, voter ID laws are a winning issue for Republicans and independent voters. Two-thirds of California voters support a voter ID law, including 70 percent support among independents, a January 2025 poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies found.
Democrats understand that by overregulating the voting process they can influence the outcome in close elections. In California, you don’t need any form of identification when you vote. You’re also automatically registered to vote when you obtain a driver’s license. To get a driver’s license, you don’t need to be a U.S. citizen or even be in the country legally. Oh, and every voter is automatically mailed a ballot.
Last November, Democrat Adam Gray defeated incumbent Republican Congressman John Duarte by less than one-tenth of one percent of the vote. Just 187 votes out of more than 210,000 votes cast. Even if a tenth of a percent of illegal votes are cast, it can alter the results of California’s closest congressional elections, and decide control of the House of Representatives.
This week, California activists launched a signature-gathering campaign to put a voter ID law on the 2026 ballot. A statewide voter ID ballot measure is good for California. Congressional action would be better and more lasting to protect the integrity of federal elections.
Shawn Steel, a member of the Republican National Committee, is a former Chairman of the California Republican Party.
Breitbart News
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