Rand Paul: GOP Voter ID Laws Are ‘Offending People’

Rand Paul has been making quite a number of outreach efforts recently, and today he met with black pastors to discuss a variety of issues, including voting rights, presumably, because after he came out of the meeting, he reportedly said that the GOP needs to ease off strict voter ID laws because they’re “offending people.”

New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters tweeted out that one remark today before releasing his full report in the Times, in which Paul talks about voting laws as they pertain to minorities.

Paul brings up the racial disparity in felony convictions and how restoring voting rights for felons would help plenty of African-Americans. And on the subject of voter ID laws, Paul appears to be at odds with plenty of conservative colleagues.

“Everybody’s gone completely crazy on this voter ID thing,” Mr. Paul said in an interview on Friday, adding that much of the bitterness in the debate over voting rights was wrapped up in race. “I think it’s wrong for Republicans to go too crazy on this issue because it’s offending people.”

Paul has previously highlighted the racial disparity of convictions in the War on Drugs.

[h/t HotAir]
[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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