Jim Crow Had a Party Affiliation

In "Casablanca," Captain Renault is "shocked, shocked" to find gambling at Rick's, just before collecting his winnings. Bishop E.W. Jackson skipped the theatrics. After Reuters reported that more than 30,000 self-declared noncitizens had been added to U.S. voter rolls since 2000, the black pastor, a descendant of enslaved Americans, told Fox News Digital, "The sad reality is I'm not shocked."

Neither am I. What shocks me is how long one party has called voter ID a revival of Jim Crow. Check who wrote the original. Jim Crow was a Democratic project built to keep eligible black citizens from voting. Voter ID works the other way. It keeps an unlawful vote from canceling a lawful one.

I've spent more than 30 years in financial services. My industry can't open a brokerage account without satisfying federal customer identification rules. As an expert witness in fiduciary cases, I know "we took their word for it" is not a winning argument. Yet the standard that governs an IRA is supposedly too much to ask for choosing a president.

Thirty Thousand "Glitches"

Reuters found errors in 11 states and blamed "software glitches and clerical errors." It couldn't say how many voted. Iowa could: officials said 35 cast counted ballots in 2024. In New Jersey, Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill disclosed in July that a motor vehicle agency error registered about 6,600 self-declared noncitizens. Fewer than 400 voted.

Defenders call 30,000 tiny against 170 million registered voters. Tell that to Shelly Simonds. Her 2017 Virginia legislative race ended in an 11,607-vote tie, and a name drawn from a bowl decided which party ran the House of Delegates. The 30,000 is also a floor. Don Palmer of the Heritage Foundation told Fox it's "undercounting it," since many states skip the audits. A bank that "accidentally" onboarded 30,000 unverified clients wouldn't get a pass for sincerity. It would get a consent order.

A noncitizen who votes in a federal election faces up to one year in prison, and falsely claiming citizenship to register carries up to five years. The trouble is enforcement. Sen. Mike Lee calls it an "honor system."

A History Lesson

Republicans passed the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. After federal troops left the South in 1877, Democratic "Redeemers" retook the statehouses and spent a generation dismantling black political power. Mississippi's 1890 constitution set the template with poll taxes and literacy tests.

Virginia's 1901 convention was more candid. Democratic delegate Carter Glass said the goal was "to eliminate every Negro voter who can be gotten rid of, legally, without materially impairing the numerical strength of the white electorate." Yes, that Glass, of Glass-Steagall. He later ran Woodrow Wilson's Treasury. Nobody called it a software glitch.

A poll tax charged citizens to vote, which is why the 24th Amendment and Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections killed it. Modern ID laws come with a free ID. Georgia issues a free voter ID card to any registered voter who needs one.

The Data Won't Cooperate

In Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, the Supreme Court upheld Indiana's photo ID law 6-3. Justice John Paul Stevens, hardly a Federalist Society pinup, wrote the controlling opinion, noting that a trip to the BMV "surely does not qualify as a substantial burden on the right to vote." Economists Enrico Cantoni and Vincent Pons found strict ID laws had no significant negative effect on registration or turnout for any racial group.

Georgia ran the experiment. President Biden called its 2021 law "Jim Crow in the 21st Century." Major League Baseball moved the All-Star Game, while requiring photo ID at will call. In 2022, Georgians set an all-time midterm early voting record, and a University of Georgia survey found 0 percent of black voters rated their experience "poor." Jim Crow never got reviews like that.

Gallup finds 84 percent of Americans favor photo ID, including 80 percent of people of color and 67 percent of Democrats. Bishop Jackson calls the charge "deeply insulting," since it implies that "if you are black, no matter how wealthy, educated, well-to-do, somehow getting an ID is a problem for you."

The Fair Objection

Critics have numbers too. A 2006 Brennan Center survey estimated 25 percent of voting-age black citizens lacked current government photo ID, versus 8 percent of white citizens. A 2014 GAO study found turnout fell about 2 to 3 points more in Kansas and Tennessee after their ID laws, with larger drops among black and young registrants.

Fix the gap and keep the rule. The bipartisan Carter-Baker Commission proposed exactly that in 2005: free photo IDs, plus mobile units to issue them. The goal: "make it easy to vote but tough to cheat." When Jimmy Carter is to your right on election integrity, reread your talking points.

What We Should Do

The SAVE America Act, which passed the House in February, would require proof of citizenship at registration and check rolls against federal immigration data. The Senate should pass it. States should publish annual audits of their rolls. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. And every ID state should fund free IDs and mobile units.

Californians vote Nov. 3 on Proposition 39. Attorney General Rob Bonta retitled it "Prohibits Citizens From Voting Unless They Present Government-Issued Identification," and a judge let it stand. By that logic, the DMV prohibits citizens from driving unless they pass a test. Absolute power corrupts, and one-party power gets creative with ballot labels.

I'm a husband, father of three sons, small business owner, and youth coach. Every kid I've coached showed paperwork proving their age before taking the field. Asking adults to do the same before choosing a president should be the least controversial idea on the ballot.

Marcus Aurelius offered a simple rule: "If it is not true, do not say it." The Jim Crow smear fails that test. At the end of "Casablanca," Renault orders his men to "round up the usual suspects." Voter ID opponents have done the same since Crawford. Maybe it's time they checked the party registration on the original.

Jay Rogers is a financial professional with more than 30 years of experience in private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and wealth management. He writes about issues in finance, constitutional law, national security, human nature, and public policy.

Editor’s Note: Republicans are fighting for election integrity by requiring proper identification to vote. It's common sense, yet Democrats are spreading lies about the impact of such a measure. 

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