CHICAGO – Security in the Democratic National Convention is tight as high-ranking elected officials flock to the United Center amid anti-Israel protests, and attendees and media are required to show police and volunteers photo ID, press passes or other credentials to get in.
Fox News Digital spoke to Democrats at the convention in Chicago about the tight security measures and how they compare to calls for voter ID laws that many Republicans say would ensure safer elections. Democrats present at the convention expressed differing views on whether all Americans should show photo ID to vote or whether such a practice suppresses Black votes, as Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden have previously said.
“We want to make sure elections are free and fair. There has to be some level of security in everything we do in life. Even at home, you take security precautions,” Chukwudi Chuck Eke of Boston said in a video interview with Fox News Digital on Tuesday. Eke, who attended the DNC as a member of a group called The National Diversity Platform for Kamala Harris, said passing voter ID laws “should be OK,” even though some Democrats portray such laws as racist.
“There are a lot of black voices here,” Eke said when asked if the DNC requiring IDs to enter campus suppresses black voices. “Once you register here, you can go downstairs to the Black Caucus and different meetings. … But we’re talking about safety first and foremost.”
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DNC participant Chukwudi Chuck Eke speaks with Fox Digital. (Fox Digital)
Another DNC attendee, Patrice Parker of Alaska, dismissed Republican-backed election laws in comparison to the DNC’s strict security measures.
“No, it’s about the safety of all these really important, valuable people who lead our country. There should be safety,” she told Fox Digital outside the United Center on Tuesday.
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DNC attendee Patrice Parker speaks with Fox Digital in Chicago. (FOXDIGITAL)
Both Harris and Biden, as well as other elected officials within the Democratic Party, had previously criticized voter ID laws as racist and anti-black in the United States.
After Biden named the then California senator as his running mate, Harris published an opinion piece in August 2020 in which she attempted to compare the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, with today.
“After ratification by votes in 36 states, it was official: Our Constitution would forever enshrine the right to vote for American women,” she wrote. “That is, unless you are black. Or Latina. Or Asian. Or Indigenous.”
Harris accused Republicans of “once again doing everything in their power to suppress and attack the voting rights of people of color.”
“They use oppressive voter ID laws, gerrymandering based on race, purging voter rolls, closing polling places, and shortening early voting days. All of these laws have been specifically targeted at communities of color since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013,” she wrote at the time.
Democratic National Convention security checkpoint in front of the United Center. (Fox News Digital)
Biden made similar comments in 2014: with reference to voter ID laws as a racially motivated “attempt to suppress minority voting, disguised as an attempt to end corruption.”
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Former President Donald Trump and Republicans in the House and Senate have pushed for voter identification laws in recent years, believing that all voters should be required to present a valid photo ID when voting to better ensure secure elections. Thirty-six states require ID to vote.
Another DNC attendee, Illinois resident Louidajean Payton, told Fox News Digital that comparing voter ID laws to the tight security at the DNC was “like comparing apples to oranges.”
DNC attendee Louidajean Payton speaks with Fox Digital. (Fox Digital)
The chairman of the Democratic Senate campaign says that Democrats who are skipping the convention “know what is best for them.”
“I grew up with my grandmother, who was born in 1924. She lived through the Depression, right? She didn’t just pick cotton. She didn’t just have to go to college, but a white woman gave her that opportunity, right? All these different things, and then they were also subject to Jim Crow laws, having to have a voter ID, having to pass a test and all this other crap. The bottom line is again, why are we trying to compare things that are not the same? That’s like comparing apples to oranges,” Payton said.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, left, raises her hand with President Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
“The reality is there are some crazy people out there who want to hurt people, right?” she said, referring to the anti-Israel protesters in Chicago who demonstrated against the DNC on Monday. “If I have to stand in line to prove that I’m not one of them, then I’m willing to do that. But as far as exercising my right to vote, I have a driver’s license. Or my son, who doesn’t have a driver’s license, has an ID card. So if you don’t have an ID card, a driver’s license and a passport, I’m sorry, why are you forcing me to have something else in addition to those things? When those are legal documents.”
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The DNC began on Monday with speeches from high-ranking Democrats such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Biden.
U.S. President Joe Biden arrives to address the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, USA, Monday, August 19, 2024. The White House campaign will reach its climax this week as Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump vie for momentum and attention around the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Choosing Kamala was the very first decision I made when I became our nominee, and it was the best decision of my entire career,” Biden said.
“We not only met, we became close friends. She’s tough, she’s experienced and she has tremendous integrity, tremendous integrity. Her story represents the best of American history.”
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Delegates from Alabama participate in the roll call on the second day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, Illinois, USA, on August 20, 2024. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)
Harris rose to the top of the Democratic ticket after Biden dropped out of the race last month amid growing concerns about his mental health and age. Shortly after Biden announced his withdrawal from the race in a tweet, he endorsed Harris as his successor.
Harris will deliver a speech and formally accept the party’s nomination on Thursday evening as attention turns to the general election on November 5.
Get the latest updates on the 2024 election, exclusive interviews and more in our digital election hub, Fox News.
