Forum Post: Why we need Voter ID...
Posted 12 years ago on June 3, 2012, 8:46 a.m. EST by peacup
(-44)
from Murray, KY
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
You need an ID to buy liquor or get on an airplane. People should not be voting twice. The dead should not be voting. Non-citizens should not be voting.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2004/10/people_who_vote_twice.html
You've only mentioned the illegal voters but what about the nescient?
banks and credit verify ID every transaction
Election workers may help citizens vote.
.
If one ID can't be presented,
Pole workers can verify ID
through other unique indicators.
I think corpses should have the right to vote. After all wouldn't that be discrimination. Who said breathing should be a requirement to vote.
I don't have a problem with that but you got to admit this amounts to poll tax because some of the poorest and oldest people in society don't drive and are not going to go to the trouble and expense to get a photo ID so they will simply skip the election. Another victory for the Republicans, who know damn well this isn't about election fraud.
Offer free ID. Not drivers license but a free, legal ID.
I agree, but do you think the Republicans will go along with that? The whole voter ID thing is a red herring, what they really want is to disenfranchise the lower income voter because they tend to vote Democrat.
I do not believe that is the motive of the Republicans, but I see how it can be spun that way.
If that is not their motive then they should go along with your free ID idea. But remember the easier it is to vote, the more lower income folks vote. And they do tend to vote more for Democrats. That would mean more Republicans would lose elections. I don't think they will go for it.
I would even argue your premise that more poor vote Democrat across the board. My experience is that urban poor vote Democrat and rural poor tend to vote Republican. I know this is not always the case, but I am surrounded by rural poor and middle class that have very strong leanings toward the Republican party. This is within a county that ultimately went blue the last two elections because the city districts were so strong toward Democrats yet surrounding districts all went red. Even when you look at the Red/Blue district breakdown of national elections and superimpose it on population density, they match very closely. I think that this is the true division in our country, rural and urban. The people with in each just think and want different things. Never the less, we as a society should be able to identify if a voter is actually a citizen or not, regardless of how it slants an election. It is the only fair thing to do.
Great points, I agree with the rural vs urban demographics. I also agree that only citizens should be able to vote. Let's do it then, let's encourage every citizen to vote by allowing everybody to get a photo ID at no cost to themselves (all you have to do is eliminate the fees) that will confirm their citizenship and eliminate the possibility of voter fraud. That would be useful in the fight against illegal immigration as well. Let's also have same day registration (as long as you have the required ID) and increase early voting as well.
Well, that makes two of us. I am on aboard with that.
WASHINGTON, April 11, 2007 — Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records and interviews. Although Republican activists have repeatedly said fraud is so widespread that it has corrupted the political process and, possibly, cost the party election victories, 86 convicted as of last year after a five year massive hunt.
Many of those charged by the Justice Department appear to have mistakenly filled out registration forms or misunderstood eligibility rules, a review of court records and interviews with prosecutors and defense lawyers show.
In Miami, an assistant United States attorney said many cases there involved what were apparently mistakes by immigrants, not fraud.
In Wisconsin, where prosecutors have lost almost twice as many cases as they won, charges were brought against voters who filled out more than one registration form and felons seemingly unaware that they were barred from voting.
One ex-convict was so unfamiliar with the rules that he provided his prison-issued identification card, stamped “Offender,” when he registered just before voting.
A handful of convictions involved people who voted twice. 30 were linked to small vote-buying schemes in which candidates generally in sheriff’s or judge’s races paid voters for their support. The consultants who said there was little evidence of it across the country, according to a review of the original report by The New York Times that was reported on Wednesday. But the federal cases provide little evidence of widespread, organized fraud, prosecutors and election law experts said.
“There was nothing that we uncovered that suggested some sort of concerted effort to tilt the election,” Richard G. Frohling, an assistant United States attorney in Milwaukee, said.
Richard L. Hasen, an expert in election law at the Loyola Law School, agreed, saying: “If they found a single case of a conspiracy to affect the outcome of a Congressional election or a statewide election, that would be significant. But what we see is isolated, small-scale activities that often have not shown any kind of criminal intent or collusion. ”
In Pakistan, Usman Ali is trying to rebuild his life after being deported from Florida, his legal home of more than a decade, for improperly filling out a voter-registration card while renewing his driver’s license.
The push to prosecute voter fraud figured in the removals last year of at least two United States attorneys whom Republican politicians or party officials had criticized for failing to pursue cases.
The campaign has roiled the Justice Department in other ways, as career lawyers clashed with a political appointee over protecting voters’ rights, and several specialists in election law were installed as top prosecutors.
Department officials defend their record. “The Department of Justice is not attempting to make a statement about the scale of the problem,” a spokesman, Bryan Sierra, said. “But we are obligated to investigate allegations when they come to our attention and prosecute when appropriate.”
if thats the way it should be.. then there should be no registration,, just walk up and show id an vote. you cant have it both ways
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I am already blocked from voting if I can't identify myself
San Diego GA suggests the machines are rigged
I haven't been 'carded' when buying liquor in over thirty years. It really pisses me off.
But they always vote Democratic!