Black Bishop Criticizes Voter ID Opposition as 'Deeply Insulting'

Black bishop and author Earl Walker Jackson has strongly criticized Democrats and the left for their stance on voter identification laws, labeling arguments that minorities and African Americans cannot obtain IDs to vote as "deeply insulting" and "deeply offensive." Jackson's remarks come in the wake of a report indicating that approximately 30,000 noncitizens were erroneously registered to vote in 11 states.

Jackson, a nondenominational Christian leader, stated that these findings highlight a growing issue of noncitizen voting, which he believes disenfranchises American citizens. "Why the Democrats are so committed to this can only be explained one way: they think it empowers people who shouldn't vote to vote, and they believe those people are going to vote for them," Jackson told Fox News Digital. He characterized the situation as a "power grab," asserting that "every vote by a noncitizen does in fact cancel out the vote of an American citizen, or it amplifies it in a way that's illegal or inappropriate."

A Reuters investigation published in late September reported that over 30,000 individuals who self-identified as noncitizens were added to U.S. voter rolls since 2000. The report attributed these registrations to "software glitches and clerical errors" and suggested "inadvertent bureaucratic failures, rather than organized efforts to register immigrants illegally." Reuters was unable to determine how many noncitizens actually cast ballots. The states where these errors occurred include California, Illinois, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.

Don Palmer, senior legal fellow for election integrity at the Heritage Foundation, suggested that the number of noncitizens on voter rolls could be significantly higher than reported due to what he described as legal loopholes and loose reporting requirements. "I think it's undercounting it. I think those are the identified non-citizens that have been accidentally or erroneously placed on the voter rolls through the mistake of the driver's license agency," Palmer said. He added that many states do not conduct audits or use tools to identify noncitizens who may have been mistakenly added to voter rolls. Palmer emphasized the need for improved systems to verify citizenship when individuals register to vote, particularly at agencies like the Department of Motor Vehicles when issuing driver's licenses.

Jackson expressed little surprise at the Reuters findings, stating, "I wonder if it's more." He criticized the narrative from some Democrats that noncitizen voting is not occurring. He specifically took issue with efforts to equate voter ID requirements with discrimination against Black voters or a new form of Jim Crow laws.

"Forgive me for being personal about this for a moment, but I just find this deeply insulting and deeply offensive because the implication is that somehow if you are black, no matter how wealthy, educated, well-to-do, somehow getting an ID is a problem for you," Jackson stated. He found the notion that obtaining an ID is easy for white individuals regardless of socioeconomic status, but difficult for Black individuals, to be "preposterous."

Jackson used his hotel check-in as an example of the everyday need for identification, questioning the logic of claiming discrimination when IDs are routinely required. "Should I say, ‘Wait a minute, oh, you're discriminating against me. You know Black people can't get I.D.s; how dare you ask?’" he said. "I mean, it's ridiculous."

Concluding his remarks, Jackson stated, "I don't hate illegal aliens, I don't want to see them harmed or hurt, but they don't have a right to vote in our elections, and they shouldn't be permitted to do so." He believes that most Americans are people of goodwill who wish to preserve the integrity of the electoral system.