Mr. Weaver
English 10
10 February 2017
Voter ID in America Voter ID laws in America go back to the 1950’s, when South Carolina became the first state that required a person to have some form of identification document or in some cases, a photo ID to vote or receive a ballot for an election. Throughout many years this topic became a controversial issue in America and has caused a major uproar between American citizens. Voter ID laws are backed up by voter fraud claims that are not accurate. President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both acted upon this issue and addressed voter ID laws in America in two different speeches.
Hillary Clinton’s speech is more rhetorically effective because she includes her personal experiences of …show more content…
Obama is also against voter ID laws, he states “This whole notion of voting fraud. This is something that has constantly been disproved. This is fake news.” Based on government analysis, Obama knows that voter fraud is very unlike to happen and that we are just depriving Americans that can’t get a photo ID their right to vote. Obama also says “There’s a whole bunch of people who are not eligible to vote and want to vote. We have the complete opposite problem, we have a whole bunch of people who are eligible to vote and don’t vote.” Obama is using logos and is taking the audience through his thought process. He is saying that some Americans are taking advantage of the fact that they can vote but are not doing anything about it. Obama also says “Fifty years ago, registering to vote here in Selma and much of the South meant guessing the number of jellybeans in a jar or bubbles on a bar of soap.” Obama is comparing the number of jellybeans the number of citizens that voted fifty years ago, since Obama used this comparison he is making this issue more effective and is making that statement stand out more to show how serious it is. Although Obama is making good claims and using good rhetorical strategies, he is not however, providing as much information as Hillary. Hillary extended her speech and made her topic even more broad towards her audience and used her rhetorical …show more content…
She says “We need a Supreme Court that cares more about protecting the right to vote of a person to vote than the right of a corporation to buy an election.” Hillary is showing great affection to the citizens of America and is making them feel safe and have hope to eliminate voter ID laws. Hillary is also showing many examples of ethos, for every statement she gives she backs them up with evidence as to why something is or is not an issue, for example she says “Since the Supreme Court eviscerated a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, many of the states that previously faced special scrutiny because of a history of racial discrimination have proposed and passed new laws that make it harder than ever to vote.” This quote is very powerful and shows what the states did in response to these political