Tuesday, April 17, 2012
(graphic: Colorlines)
Almost a third of all election-eligible transgender Americans living in states with strict voter-ID laws could be denied the right to cast ballots this November.
Jody L. Herman, a Peter J. Cooper Public Policy Fellow at The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law determined that about 25,000 transgender individuals living in nine states may not be able to vote in the upcoming election due to requirements that voters show proper identification.
The people in question have “transitioned to live in a gender different from the gender assigned to them” when they previously registered to vote and obtained certain forms of ID, such as drivers licenses. This represents 29% of eligible transgender voters.
The nine states with the strict laws are Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin, with the largest numbers in Texas, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
The Potential Impact of Voter Identification Laws on Transgender Voters (by Jody L. Herman, Williams Institute) (pdf)
New State Laws Could Reduce Voter Lists by 5 Million (by David Wallechinsky, AllGov)
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