Aside from an economy that’s going haywire, an obstinate Libyan dictator, and a mushrooming level of debt, U.S. officials are sparring over an issue that seems oddly antiquated and minor. Texas, Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Rhode Island recently passed legislation that requires all voters to show a photo-ID at the polls.

Voter mischief, like mail-fraud or jaywalking, is not exactly an existential threat to American society. Even so, there have been enough flagrant and documented examples over the years – particularly in municipal politics – to make IDs a reasonable initiative. One would assume something as simple as confirming you are who you say you are on Election Day upholds the essential ethics of citizenship and cracks down on voter-impersonation, double-voting, and voting by non-citizens.

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Data from Georgia from the 2008 presidential election reveals that Georgia had its largest voter turnout in state history, despite it being the first major election in which ID laws were in effect. Amazingly, the black share of the vote jumped from 25 percent in the 2004 race to 30 in 2008, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Yes, this was a watershed election with Barack Obama on the ballot, but Mississippi, which has an equal black population and no voter ID measures, only experienced a 2% jump in black participation. Similarly, Indiana, the state with the supposedly tyrannical voting laws, saw its Democratic primary turnout quadruple from 2004 to 2008. Meanwhile, in neighboring Illinois (Obama’s home state) turnout increased by less than half of the Indiana swell.

Read more at The Phoenix.