Kamala's record has come back to bite her…again.
Despite going on the record against voter ID, and making bizarre claims about “rural Americans” and their access to Kinko's to justify it, her Phoenix rally required government issued identification for admittance.
Ahead of the rally, the campaign confirmed the Arizona Democratic Party would send out “non-transferable tickets” ahead of the rally, that only “confirmed RSVPs” would be able to enter, and that the government issued IDs must match the names RSVPd.
In 2021, in an interview with Soledad O'Brien on BET, Kamala said “I don't think that we should underestimate what that could mean,” referring to voter ID laws.
“Because in some people's mind that means, well, you're going to have to Xerox or photocopy your ID to send it in to prove you are who you are. Well, there are a whole lot of people, especially people who live in rural communities, who don't – there's no Kinko's, there's no Office Max near them. People have to understand that when we're talking about voter ID laws, be clear about who you have in mind and what would be required of them to prove who they are.”
She continued, “Of course people have to prove who they are, but not in a way that makes it almost impossible for them to prove who they are.”
Readers should be aware that there are no Kinko's in rural America, suburban America or urban America, as the brand merged with Fed-Ex over a decade ago.
She was met with intense backlash for these comments from rural Americans, who found the implications that they were incapable of photocopying their IDs belittling and insulting.
The same year she gave that interview, a Rasmussen poll showed that a staggering 75% of Americans and 60% of Democrats supported voters being required to show government issued IDs before casting their ballots. Despite this, that same year, Congressional Democrats attempted to pass the ironically named “For The People Act,” with the goal of federally eliminating voter ID laws.
Apparently, the presidential hopeful believes her rallies are higher stakes, and warrant a higher standard for participation than American elections.
Her party has repeatedly characterized all efforts to establish voter ID laws as “racist” and “oppressive,” with little evidence to support these claims.
In the Alabama Senate runoff election in late 2017, following the state's adoption of voter ID laws, black voters turned out in record numbers, ultimately pushing Doug Jones to victory.
Even the New York Times was forced to admit this “complicated” Democratic claims about voter ID laws being rooted in racism, and designed to suppress the black vote.
