The Obama administration’s efforts to crush state laws that require voters to provide simple photo identification has split the nation on racial lines, with blacks overwhelmingly supporting the Justice Department’s actions and nearly eight in 10 whites opposing it.
Coming on the heels of Attorney General Eric Holder’s effort to strike down a Texas voter ID law, Rasmussen Polls Thursday found that 62 percent of blacks oppose the laws. Some 76 percent of whites back the identification requirements. Overall, 72 percent say voters should be required to show photo ID before voting.
The racial divide also clouds Holder’s action. Rasmussen said that 65 percent of blacks agree with Justice’s challenge to laws requiring photo IDs before voting while just 29 percent of whites do.
The racial division mirrors the split among the Democratic Party and the GOP. Republicans say everyone should be asked to prove who they are before voting, but the Democrats say the laws are used to chase off minorities. On that subject, the races divide again in the Rasmussen poll with 61 percent of blacks believe the laws discriminate against minorities and the poor versus 22 percent of whites.
