The basic notion of "voter ID" is itself is not racist, just like a firearm by itself does not kill. As with firearms, however, the crime comes with how the voter-ID law is designed and implemented:
Voter ID laws with racist intent:
- Minority voters disproportionately lack ID. Nationally, up to 25% of African-American citizens of voting age lack government-issued photo ID, compared to only 8% of whites.
- States exclude forms of ID in a discriminatory manner. Texas allows concealed weapons permits for voting, but does not accept student ID cards. Until its voter ID law was struck down, North Carolina prohibited public assistance IDs and state employee ID cards, which are disproportionately held by Black voters. And until recently, Wisconsin permitted active duty military ID cards, but prohibited Veterans Affairs ID cards for voting.
- Voter ID laws are enforced in a discriminatory manner. A Caltech/MIT study found that minority voters are more frequently questioned about ID than are white voters.
- Voter ID laws reduce turnout among minority voters. Several studies, including a 2014 GAO study, have found that photo ID laws have a particularly depressive effect on turnout among racial minorities and other vulnerable groups, worsening the participation gap between voters of color and whites.
This is not a new thing. From
Paul Weyrich, founder of the Heritage Foundation:
"I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."
He said that while Reagan was president in front of a crowd of thousands of evangelical preachers, btw...which should tell you that the Right's voter-suppression efforts are NOT a new thing.
But I suspect you already knew that.