Supporters of [voter ID] laws cite anecdotal cases of fraud as a reason that states need to do more to secure elections, but fraud appears to be rare. As part of its effort to build support for voter ID laws, the Republican National Lawyers Association last year published a report that identified some 400 election fraud prosecutions over a decade across the entire country. That’s not even one per state per year.

ID laws would not have prevented many of those cases because they involved vote-buying schemes in local elections or people who falsified voter registrations.

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Part of a good overview of what tighter voter ID laws could mean for this election.

I think of voter ID laws in much the same way that I think of capital punishment, a draconian attempt to solve a social ill that adversely affects people who already tend to be marginalized.