Voter identification laws (aka Voter ID) are an attempt by Republican lawmakers to suppress the vote with demographics that often vote for Democratic candidates   young voters, minorities, the poor. Often, when confronted with this, conservatives claim that the laws are in place to protect the integrity of the ballot against so-called  voter fraud,  but time and time again studies have shown that  voter fraud  happens so infrequently it is almost nonexistent.In Wisconsin, failed Republican presidential candidate Governor Scott Walker praised the recent implementation of voter ID in Wisconsin s presidential primary. But one case shows that the law is just a fancy, modern version of Jim Crow:Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said his state s strict new voter-ID requirement worked  just fine  in the April 5 primary, but thousands of Wisconsinites were unable to cast a ballot because of the new law. One of them was Eddie Lee Holloway Jr.Holloway, a 58-year-old African-American man, moved from Illinois to Wisconsin in 2008 and voted without problems, until Wisconsin passed its voter-ID law in 2011.  I never miss voting,  he said. He brought his expired Illinois photo ID, birth certificate, and Social Security card to get a photo ID for voting, but the DMV in Milwaukee rejected his application because the name on his birth certificate read  Eddie Junior Holloway,  the result of a clerical error when it was issued.The Nation goes on to report that Holloway ended up spending $200 on records, made trips between two states, and was still unable to vote in Wisconsin. The U.S. Court of Appeals is currently reviewing a case brought before it on behalf of Holloway by the ACLU. The ACLU estimates that there are thousands of people in Wisconsin who have been disenfranchised like him.This is exactly what Republicans want. They ve said it on the record, multiple times, that voter ID helps them because it suppresses the vote. Their party best succeeds when less and less people get to exercise their Constitutional rights.Featured image via Flickr