INSTITUTE INDEX: Strict photo ID laws threaten transgender voting rights
In the upcoming election, number of states that will have in place strict voter ID laws requiring citizens to present government-issued photo ID at the polls: 8*
Of those eight strict ID states, number in the South: 5
Number of transgender citizens whose voting rights are at risk because of those laws, with students, people of color and those with low incomes and disabilities likely overrepresented: over 34,000
Number in just those five Southern strict-ID states: 26,000
In Georgia alone: 11,500
Rank of Georgia among the strict-ID states where the highest percentage of transgender people who are otherwise eligible to vote lack updated IDs or records: 1
According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS), percent of transgender citizens who've transitioned and report not having identification documents or records that list their correct gender: 27
If that rate were applied to the current U.S. population, number of transgender citizens who lack updated identification or records: about 261,000
Percent of NTDS respondents who reported being harassed for presenting identification that didn't accurately reflect their gender: 41
Who reported disparate treatment or harassment by government officials because of it: 22
Who reported being assaulted or attacked: 3
* Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas,Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
(Click on figure to go to source. The numbers in this index are from "The Potential Impact of Voter Identification Laws on Transgender Voters in the 2016 General Election" by Jody L. Herman, Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, September 2016.)
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Sue Sturgis
Sue is the former editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.