Many states have recently enacted voter ID laws. But are these laws constitutional? I say no. Since getting a photo ID costs money or indirectly costs money (i.e., a driving test fee), it is a sort of a poll tax. Poll taxes are unconstitutional under the 24th Amendment. If states would be willing to consider handing out free ID that was easy to access, then it would not be unconstitutional. Also, another way it could be unconstitutional is because of the way it is being applied. If photo ID is not given to Latino, poor or elderly residents at all, even with the payment of a fee, it is unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment which says that governments must provide "due process of law" to all people, regardless of race, gender, age, or disability. The states would not be providing due process of law to voters who were denied an ID because they were poor, Latino, or elderly. The way the ID centers are set up is also discriminatory. Centers are often placed far away from poor or Latino neighborhoods and it is hard for those people to get there. And if voter clerks refused Latinos without and ID but let in white voters, than that would be unconstitutional as well.
