Shocker: seven in ten favor voter ID laws

Kentucky Senator and likely presidential hopeful Rand Paul recently had to walk back some of his previous assertions about the GOP annoying people over voter ID laws. In light of yet another round of national polling, he may want to tip toe a few more steps to the rear. While it may be true that voter ID laws are annoying some folks, it looks like it’s really only about 30% of them.

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Seven in 10 registered voters are in favor of identification laws in order to root out fraud at the ballot box, according to a Fox News poll released this week.

The survey found majority support in every major demographic, including black voters and Democrats.

The 70 percent who support voter ID laws remains largely unchanged in the past few years. Another 27 percent believe the laws are unnecessary…

The survey found majorities of every demographic support the law. Ninety-one percent of Republicans offer support, and 66 percent of independents feel the same.

Fifty-five percent of Democrats support the laws, while 43 percent oppose them.

Opposition to the laws is highest among black respondents, but even there a bare majority, 51 percent, support them. Forty-six percent of African Americans oppose the laws.

The actual phrasing of the question was pretty straight forward and not hedged to favor one side or the other: “Supporters of these laws say they are necessary to stop ineligible people from voting illegally. Opponents say these laws are unnecessary and mostly discourage legal voters from voting. What do you think?”

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Lest you think that some new wave of rational thought and consistency has suddenly ravaged the nation along with the MERS virus, respondents also coughed up some rather curious answers on related subjects. The full results of the poll may be found here. Given how wide the margin in favor is and how common the knowledge of which party supports it and which one opposes, it’s rather difficult to explain the response to a second question as to which party is doing a better job on the subject of immigration.

ImmigrationPoll

In three years time, the margin as to who should handle immigration policy has flipped from a 42-32 edge for Republicans to a 44-36 margin in favor of Democrats. Really? You support voter ID laws, but a plurality think the Democrats “do a better job” on immigration?

It seems to me that we’ve been hearing a repeating pattern these last couple of years from not only the White House, but their Left swinging allies, that when a sufficient number of people support a particular thing, it’s a settled matter, and all of the naysayers should simply learn to accept the results, deal with their grief and find a way to move on. Does 70% not meet this critical threshold? If you are still opposing sensible voter ID laws to preserve ballot integrity, aren’t you in danger of landing on the wrong side of history?

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It’s funny how this never seems to surface on the Sunday shows when the subject of Voter ID comes up. It’s even more amazing how it seems to be common knowledge that support for such legislation will doom the Republicans in 2016. Nothing is a given in politics, but 70% sure sounds like a fairly safe number in the electoral betting parlor to me.

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