Voters reported some problems casting ballots Tuesday in Ferguson, Missouri, the city that has come to symbolize racial tensions in this country after an officer killed unarmed teenager Michael Brown in August.
National Bar Association President Pamela Meanes told ThinkProgress earlier today that there were two incidents of poll workers requesting two forms of ID from residents who did not have a photo identification. Missouri does not require a photo ID to vote, and only requires one form of identification.
According to The Guardian, a voter hotline run by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law received several calls about "individual voters being asked to show their ID cards by police officers at polling stations."
Twitter users also suggested they witnessed problems:
Af-Am Florissant woman (near Ferguson) tells me she was made to return to car to get photo ID to vote. Missouri does not have photo ID law.
— Zachary Roth (@zackroth) November 5, 2014When you vote, are police officers staked outside? Well, they are in #Ferguson tonight.
— deray mckesson (@deray) November 5, 2014Granted, these are isolated reports; we don't know if they're indicative of wider problems with Ferguson's polls. But given that voter ID rules are generally a Republican tactic to suppress black turnout, and Ferguson is 67 percent African-American, the last thing the St. Louis suburb needs is another trigger for racial tension.