DNC attendees a mixed bag when it comes to voter ID laws amid tight convention security: 'Free and fair'
CHICAGO – Security at the Democratic National Convention has been tight as high-ranking elected officials pour into the United Center amid anti-Israel protests, requiring attendees and the media to show a photo ID, press badge, or other credentials to law enforcement and volunteers in order to enter.
Fox News Digital spoke to Democrats at the Chicago convention about the tight security and how it stacks up when compared to calls for voter ID laws that many Republicans say would better ensure safe and secure elections. Democrats attending the convention offered varying views on whether all Americans should present photo IDs in order to vote, or if such a practice suppresses Black voices, as Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden have previously said.
"We want to ensure elections are free and fair. There must be an element of security in everything we do in life. Even at your home, you put safety measures and security measures in place," Chukwudi Chuck Eke of Boston told Fox News Digital in a video interview Tuesday. Eke, who was attending the DNC as a member of a group called "The National Diversity Platform for Kamala Harris, said that passing voter ID laws "should be fine" despite some Democrats painting such laws as racist.
"There are a lot of Black voices here," Eke said when asked if the DNC requiring IDs to enter the campus suppresses Black voices. "Once you register here, you can go downstairs for the Black Caucus, different meetings. … But what we're talking about primarily is about security."
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Another DNC attendee, Patrice Parker of Alaska, brushed off GOP-backed voter laws when compared to the DNC's tight security measures.
"No, it's all about security for all these really important, valuable people that are leading our country. There should be security," she told Fox Digital outside the United Center on Tuesday.
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Both Harris and Biden, along with other elected officials within the Democratic Party, have previously slammed voter ID laws as being mired in racism and targeting Black Americans.
Harris published an op-ed in August of 2020, after Biden named the then-California senator as his running mate, that attempted to compare the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the power to vote, to modern days.
"After ratification votes from 36 states, it was official: Our Constitution would forevermore enshrine the right to vote for American women," she wrote. "That is, unless you were Black. Or Latina. Or Asian. Or Indigenous."
Harris accused Republicans of "once again doing everything in their power to suppress and attack the voting rights of people of color."
"They are deploying suppressive voter ID laws, racial gerrymandering, voter roll purges, precinct closures and reduced early-voting days all of which have been laser-targeted toward communities of color since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013," she wrote at the time.
Biden, back in 2014, also issued a similar comment, referring to voter ID laws as a racially charged "attempt to repress minority voting masquerading as an attempt to end corruption."
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Former President Donald Trump, as well as Republicans in the House and Senate, have called for voter ID laws in recent years, saying all voters should be required to present a valid photo ID to cast a ballot in order to better protect safe and secure elections. A form of identification in order to vote is required in 36 states.
Another DNC attendee, Illinois resident Louidajean Payton, told Fox News Digital that comparing voter ID laws to the strict security at the DNC is "comparing apples to oranges."
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"Having grown up with my grandma, who was born in 1924 — she dealt with the Depression, right? Dealt with not only picking cotton. Not only having to go to college by a Caucasian lady who gave her the opportunity, right? All of those different things, and then to be subjected to Jim Crow laws as well, with voter ID, having to go up and pass a test, and all this other jack. The bottom line again is, why are we trying to compare things that aren't the same? That's apples and oranges," Payton said.
"The reality is here, we got some cray-crays out there that want to do people harm, right?" she said, referring to the anti-Israel protesters in Chicago who marched against the DNC on Monday. "If I gotta go through a line to prove that I'm not one of those, I'm down for that. But as far as it becomes to being able to exercise my right to vote: I have a driver's license. Or my son, who doesn't have a driver license, he has a state ID. So if you don't have a state ID and you don't have a driver's license and you don't have a passport, I'm sorry, why do you then make me have something else on top of these things? When those are legal documentations."
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The DNC kicked off Monday, with high-profile Democrats such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Biden addressing the convention.
"Selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made when I became our nominee, and it was the best decision I made my whole career," Biden said.
"We've not only gotten to know each other, we've become close friends. She's tough, she's experienced, and she has enormous integrity, enormous integrity. Her story represents the best American story."
Harris rose to the top of the Democratic ticket after Biden dropped out of the race last month amid mounting concerns surrounding his mental acuity and age. Shortly after announcing his departure from the race in a tweet, Biden endorsed Harris to run in his place.
Harris will deliver a speech Thursday evening and officially accept the party's nomination as attention turns to the Nov. 5 general election.