For years, Republicans have argued that voter fraud is so great a threat to democracy that Americans should be required to present some form of photo ID — say, a driver’s license — before they can cast a ballot.

So it stands to reason that GOP leaders would be thrilled with new laws that automatically register people to vote when they obtain a driver’s license, right?

Not so much. Republicans claim that setting all those prospective voters loose with photo IDs, wait for it, increases the risk of fraud.

Apparently there’s just no pleasing the GOP— especially when the voters in question happen to belong to demographic groups that tend to vote against the party.

In the seven years since Barack Obama was elected president, 18 states — most of them led by Republicans — have passed laws requiring voters to show some form of ID. Research indicates that as many as 25 percent of African-Americans don’t have a government-issued ID, the form most often required. The numbers are also disproportionately high for Latinos, young people and the poor, all of whom tend to lean Democratic.

Thirty-two states now have ID measures in effect. Nine require photo ID, and eight others have approved photo ID laws that grant narrow exceptions. Missouri’s attempts to require photo ID have been struck down by the courts, but the state GOP hasn’t given up.

Kansas and three other states have raised the hurdles even higher, requiring would-be voters to provide proof of citizenship before they can register. Critics point out that many people don’t have ready access to their birth certificates or other types of proof. They’ve filed a federal lawsuit to overturn the Kansas law.

Amid all this, research continues to show that voter fraud is virtually nonexistent. A recent study by Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt, for example, found 31 incidents of alleged fraud by voter impersonation out of more than 1 billion votes cast in the United States between 2000 and 2014.

There are some rays of hope in the fight against disenfranchisement. In August, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that Texas violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act when it imposed a strict voter ID law.

And voting rights advocates scored major victories this year when California and Oregon passed laws that automatically register people to vote when they receive their driver’s license, unless they opt out. Sixteen states, plus the District of Columbia, are considering similar measures, and Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has introduced a bill to take the effort nationwide.

Republicans contend the measures enable noncitizens to vote fraudulently. But both California and Oregon require multiple proofs of ID to obtain a driver’s license. Oregon, in fact, requires proof of citizenship from its drivers. The difference between the two laws, of course, is that driving is a privilege and voting is a constitutionally protected right.

Automatic registration of voters is good for democracy, but it’s obvious that people who want to thwart the electoral process won’t give up easily.

In Republican-led Alabama, a state that requires photo ID from its voters, officials recently announced they would shut down 31 driver’s license offices where people can obtain IDs if they don’t drive. The closures were described as a cost-saving measure, but it’s no coincidence that they hit every county where African-Americans make up more than 75 percent of registered voters.

A state that once subjected its black citizens to “how many bubbles are in a bar of soap?” tests really ought to know better. And the rest of America shouldn’t have trouble picturing why today’s more genteel but equally pernicious obstacles to voting should fall.