In the debate over the SAVE Act, there are memes and “data” online that shows overwhelming support for the strict Photo ID laws to vote that is just one part of the SAVE Act. But there’s a lot of misinformation about which countries are democratic, and which have voter ID laws on social media. A real analysis of free and unfree countries and their election laws leads to a shocking discovery: unfree countries are more likely to have strict voter ID laws than free countries.
Politicians are sharing and resharing these Photo ID graphics.
One of these claims that all of the free and partly free countries require Photo ID to vote, except the United States, and gives a list. But I found that this graphic has 15 countries that are neither free nor partly free, according to Freedom House data. This includes Thailand, Tanzania, Mali, Uganda, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua, Burkina Faso, Venezuela, Palestine (Gaza Strip and the West Bank), Cambodia, Myanmar, Iraq and Haiti.
You’re probably shocked that someone would make a list including these among the free and partly free countries. I checked and confirmed these numerous errors including the same Nicaragua whose dictator just canceled all elections in the future.
There’s another shared image claiming to be from Fox News (I highly doubt it’s from Fox News) which also claims a list of countries require Photo ID to vote. Not only does it contain unfree countries, but it also has several democracies on the list that don’t require a Photo ID to vote.
To get this research right, I look at all countries from Freedom House that are listed as free and compare them to all Freedom House countries that are rated “not free.” For Voter ID data, I also relied on research by Tom Barton, published in the Journal of Representative Democracy, titled “Understanding a Key Electoral Too: A New Dataset on the Global Distribution of Voter Identification Laws.”
For the countries too small to be read on his map, I utilize A.I. research to fill in the gaps, employing those with electoral site links.
Among Freedom House’s 60 unfree countries, 54 of them have strict Photo ID laws for voting (90%). For Freedom House’s 89 free countries, 62 of them have Photo ID laws for elections, or 69.66%. For the USA, it depends on the state, as they are constitutionally in charge of elections. France does something unusual where only those living in cities with more than 100,000 residents have to show Photo ID. Both were removed from the analysis for variability. But regardless of which category you put them in, authoritarians are more likely to require Photo ID.
Moreover, only about 10 states in the USA require strict photo ID rules. Many others (including red states) allow reasonable exceptions to the strict of the rules.
Among those who were a free country and a “Yes” on Photo IDs to vote, roughly half have similar reasonable alternatives as opposed to some harsh strictness. Free countries requiring Photo IDs often allow student IDs or driver’s licenses or other types of Photo ID to vote, many of which are restricted by the proposed ‘SAVE Act.’
It’s the unfree countries that are more inflexible about the Photo IDs.
I know some of you are wondering why an unfree country would require a Photo ID or even have an election. Those ballot box events aren’t meant for a free expression of ideas or to choose a candidate. They are displays of strict loyalty to the regime. Woe to brave soul who votes in a way other than what the regime wants. And Photo ID rules make it easier to track those who disagree with the way things are going.
What does this analysis show? It demonstrates that Voter ID laws are neither necessary, nor sufficient for free elections in a country, despite what some politicians or pundits say.
John A. Tures is Professor of Political Science and Coordinator of the Political Science Program at LaGrange College, in LaGrange, Georgia. His first book, “Branded”, is available on Amazon. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu.