(DailyChive.com) – Vice President Kamala Harris faced criticism online after her campaign rally in Arizona checked attendees for government-issued IDs while entering the event despite her history of opposing laws favoring voter IDs.
On Friday, Aug. 9, Harris held a rally in Arizona alongside her newly announced running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Before that rally, the campaign sent an email out that only people who RSVP could attend. The email also said that the RSVP must match a valid photo ID for admittance to the venue.
The rally started admitting attendees around 1:30 PM, which took place at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, about 15 miles outside of Phoenix. Although the event was announced on July 30, the venue address wasn’t revealed to ticket-holders until the day before the rally through a “non-transferable” invitation, perhaps to deter protests. That did not stop them, though, and five minutes into her speech, Harris was disrupted by a few anti-Israel protesters. She addressed them by saying she “respects” their voices.
Social media users immediately began to post screenshots of the Harris campaign email and accused the vice president of hypocrisy while others simply noted the situation as ironic. Kevin Sorbo, actor and conservative commentator, jokingly said voter ID “is racist” but pointed out that supporters could not get into Harris’ rally without one. Others joined in, asking how requiring ID to vote was frowned upon by Democrats while it was acceptable to require one to attend a private event.
Democrats have typically championed policies that make voting as “accessible” as possible under the guise of altruism, claiming that underprivileged communities lack the ability to obtain IDs to vote and therefore ID requirements are discriminatory. Harris has been supporting such a view since her very first interview as vice president in 2021, saying although she believes people should have to “prove who they are,” the government should not make it “almost impossible” to do so.
Opponents of this view argue it assumes the average poor or working-class person of a minority group is too incompetent to obtain an ID when this isn’t true. Critics also pointed out the hypocrisy of being okay with illegal immigrants crossing the border unvetted while requiring rally supporters to be vetted before entering an event.
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