Voter ID - Jay Bookman - The Atlanta Journal Constitution
November 3, 2012 3:46 PM   Subscribe

Beautiful Georgia, my adopted state as I finish life’s journey ... my last year ever to vote in a presidential election. I wanted to feel part of this great privilege, wanted to again walk out of my precinct tapping my Georgia Peach voter sticker. Even if the day were dark, gloomy and cold, the sun would be shining. One Georgia nonagenarian's quest for voter ID
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 (44 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Voter ID campaigns are just another way of intimidating the poor working class and preventing them from voting. Who has the time between work and family commitments to jump through those hurdles? Hopefully the ongoing demographic shift in the US means it's the last time this gains much traction.
posted by arcticseal at 4:00 PM on November 3, 2012 [1 favorite]


Republicans committing electoral fraud to game the system are really committing treason against the state, because their allegations of voter fraud are themselves fraudulent and the measures the GOP takes end up disenfranchising voters and delegitimizing the results. It is unfortunate that we haven't been charging and imprisoning these con artists before they manage to take away others' rights.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:22 PM on November 3, 2012 [14 favorites]


At least we can be sure that she won't be committing voter fraud. That's the important part, right?
posted by double block and bleed at 4:30 PM on November 3, 2012 [1 favorite]


I eagerly await the first person who sues because their ID is wrongly denied due to clerical error.
posted by jaduncan at 4:34 PM on November 3, 2012 [3 favorites]


I don't understand why the Democratic Party doesn't get in front of this issue. Declare voter fraud a huge problem that must be dealt with at the federal level to ensure the integrity of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and then have a federal mandate requiring each and every citizen to get a voter id card.
posted by srboisvert at 4:37 PM on November 3, 2012


srboisvert please elaborate on how that would benefit the Democratic Party or the nation
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 4:43 PM on November 3, 2012


srboisvert, it probably has something to do with this:


US Constitution: Article II
"Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector."
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 4:43 PM on November 3, 2012


If you are a citizen and your right to vote is denied, you should have no requirement to pay taxes for four years.
posted by Jeff Mangum's Penny-farthing at 4:45 PM on November 3, 2012 [4 favorites]


Or follow laws.
posted by enn at 4:46 PM on November 3, 2012 [3 favorites]


"Taxation without representation" has a certain pedigree. "Representation or I can rape without legal reprecussion" does not.
posted by Jeff Mangum's Penny-farthing at 4:48 PM on November 3, 2012 [2 favorites]


Of all the odious projects sponsored and pushed by today's Republican party, I think voter suppression disgusts me the most, since it's such a direct assault on democracy.
posted by mollweide at 4:54 PM on November 3, 2012 [2 favorites]


No pedigree? Consent of the governed? "The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government."

Anyway, plenty of people are and have always been taxed without being able to vote in the US—minors, non-citizens, and felons in states where they are disenfranchised.
posted by enn at 4:58 PM on November 3, 2012


mollweide: Of all the odious projects sponsored and pushed by today's Republican party, I think voter suppression disgusts me the most, since it's such a direct assault on democracy.

The beauty of this is that opponents of voter id laws are painted as brainless liberals who would rather let felons, illegal immigrants, and dead people vote.
posted by dr_dank at 5:07 PM on November 3, 2012 [1 favorite]


Which is funny when you consider that felons and illegal immigrants can, in fact, drive
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 5:39 PM on November 3, 2012 [1 favorite]


fucking fascists
posted by growabrain at 5:42 PM on November 3, 2012


Dr_dank, the fact that the optics play well and they don't even try to disguise what they are doing makes it that much worse.
posted by mollweide at 5:57 PM on November 3, 2012 [1 favorite]


to get Medicaid- need a valid id
to get medicare -need a valid id
to drive a car-need a valid id
to fly on a plane-need a valid id
to get a professional license – need a valid ID
to get food stamps- need a valid Id
want a mortgage for a home- need a valid ID
want to rent an apartment- need a valid Id
want to pay income taxes= need a SS number
want to vote- who cares what you have as long as you vote democrat
posted by crushedhope at 6:21 PM on November 3, 2012 [2 favorites]


crushedhope, did you read the article? Did you consider the trials of Peggy Cobb to be a good thing for our country?

Every one one of those things you listed have material benefits for the person participating - except voting. Firstly, that means that the motivation for fraud is much greater, so ID may be necessary for security reasons. Secondly, because the chances of an individual vote making a difference is microscopic, we need to make voting as simple as possible, otherwise individuals will rationally choose not to expend the effort to individually vote, and the results of an election will not reflect the will of the people governed by that election.

Fact is, Voter ID doesn't solve a problem, it creates a problem. Unless you care about your party more than you care about democracy.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 6:36 PM on November 3, 2012 [18 favorites]


Post a comment on Metafilter- need $5
Vote in an election- need $53
posted by ifandonlyif at 6:42 PM on November 3, 2012 [20 favorites]


want to vote- who cares what you have as long as you vote democrat

The system is rigged enough as it is without the GOP making it worse, so if you're a moderate Republican and you value your long-term right to vote, you might think about working with your party to get them to stop what they're doing. Today, it's just a matter of votes that the GOP takes away from those not voting for them (which includes Democrats as much as Ron Paul supporters), and you might be fine with that, if it gets you the outcome you want. Tomorrow, it will be a political entity even more corrupt that conspires to take your right to vote away from you.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:50 PM on November 3, 2012 [7 favorites]


Thread derail, after which you may carry on. This is from the comments:

NORMAL LIBERAL VS. CONSERVATIVE DOUBLE STANDARD:

“Bill Maher on HBO’s Real Time Friday might have said one of the most disgraceful things uttered during the 2012 campaign season.

“If you’re thinking about voting for Mitt Romney, I would like to make this one plea: black people know who you are and they will come after you”


The smuggest smarmiest guy on TV: B.M. Please stop him, somebody. This screaming Hollywood Limousine Liberal makes real progressives mad. And I will never forgive him for attacking the teachers' unions. Yes, it's easy to make fun of Mormons' Magic Underwear. But you are not being helpful, Bill. Please go away.
posted by kozad at 6:52 PM on November 3, 2012 [2 favorites]


For the record, I'm just as scandalized about old people being prevented from voting Republican as voting Democrat
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 6:53 PM on November 3, 2012 [8 favorites]


I'll believe that the Voter ID laws are really about preventing fraud when they are passed with provisions that make massive efforts to ensure that every citizen can get ID easily and for free.

Or when in addition to the very close to nonexistent problem of in-person voter impersonation, such laws address the very real possibility of absentee ballot fraud, or the disturbing yet easily-fixable possibility of electronic voting maching hacking.

Oddly, none of them have come with such provisions.

They have, however, come with quotes like:

"Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done." -- Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R)

And they have come hand-in-hand with attempts to curtail early voting, and reduce voting hours.

For some strange reason, I am suspicious of the true motivations behind these laws.
posted by kyrademon at 6:57 PM on November 3, 2012 [24 favorites]


Hans von Spakovsky is a tool. (great New Yorker piece on this guy). Hans von Spakovsky, a Republican lawyer who served in the Bush Administration, has promoted strict voter-I.D. laws.
posted by cashman at 6:57 PM on November 3, 2012 [1 favorite]


Tomorrow, it will be a political entity even more corrupt that conspires to take your right to vote away from you.

But, but, I'm white and middle class! Mass surveillance, assassinations, false flag operations, and vote suppression won't affect me.
posted by Malor at 7:01 PM on November 3, 2012 [2 favorites]


want to vote- who cares what you have as long as you vote democrat

Assumes facts not in evidence.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 7:15 PM on November 3, 2012


This is who they are -- fucking cheaters.
posted by bardic at 7:33 PM on November 3, 2012 [2 favorites]


to get Medicaid- need a valid id
to get medicare -need a valid id
to drive a car-need a valid id
to fly on a plane-need a valid id
to get a professional license – need a valid ID
to get food stamps- need a valid Id
want a mortgage for a home- need a valid ID
want to rent an apartment- need a valid Id
want to pay income taxes= need a SS number
want to vote- who cares what you have as long as you vote democrat
And how many of this list are rights? By my count, one. The right to vote. Though not an absolute universal constitutional right, it is one via laws such as the Voting Rights Act, and several constitutional amendments specifically enfranchising certain groups.

The only other one with a specific constitutional basis is the requirement to pay income taxes, and though I'm not American, I believe the SS number is allocated free of charge and with minimal paperwork.

Meanwhile, you have utter tosh about 'spigot cities'.


“Without the spigot being opened in Philly, without the spigot being opened in Saint Louis, without the spigot being opened in Detroit and Fort Lauderdale and– and– and places around the country like that, Milwaukee– Cleveland, Cincinnati, those states would not go blue,” Adams said on “The Machine.” “It requires massive turnout– in large unopposed numbers in those urban centers for those states to remain in– in the blue column. What you have, unfortunately, is pervasive systemic voter fraud in many of those places. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”

...

"Calling upon the 2008 election, Adams pointed out that Republican Sen. John McCain’s campaign had a policy to not call the Justice Department’s voting section. The campaign for then-Senator Barack Obama, on the other hand, is believed to have made frequent calls to the department requesting these cities have an adequate number of voting machines in case a precinct received a large amount of voters at one time.

“So you had one side using the DOJ as a potential lever to help them gain power, and you had the other side fleeing from the battlefield,” Adams said."


Nicely illustrated by a photo of a queue of black people waiting to vote. I.E. a lot of black people in cities wanting to vote = spigot city = states that would otherwise be red states being turned blue by all the irritating black people who decide to vote in said city, because they live there. But obviously that's all just electoral fraud, there couldn't possibly be a bunch of minorities who actually vote how they want.

The obvious solution is therefore to make it as hard as possible for those queues of black people to vote, which will thus eliminate all the vote fraud they're committing! And of course, since they were all fraudulently voting democratic, Romney will win.

Equally obviously, they'll have plenty of documented, recorded voter fraud going on at the polls, clearly showing how same day registration and lack of voter ID is being abused. Umm, except they've got no evidence whatsoever, or at least they don't show any of it. They just claim mass in-person fraud (by black people, natch) as a fact, without going to any of the effort of you know, actually proving it.

So you've got Republicans transparently trying to disenfranchise black people because they vote democratic in large numbers. Spigot Cities, indeed, with not a shred of evidence of fraud.

That, to me, seems to be far more evidence of attempted election fraud than anything they have on the people they're trying to disenfranchise.

Not that I have a dog in this fight, being a Brit, but given the US is always going about ensuring transparent Democracy in other countries; they could do with looking at the plank in their own eye, specifically Republicans and their attempts to massively swing the vote towards their candidate by intentionally disenfranchising black people for voting the 'wrong' way.
posted by ArkhanJG at 7:55 PM on November 3, 2012 [22 favorites]


I live in Indiana, which was one of the first states with a voter ID law. This PDF lists all of the documents that you need to get an Indiana ID card. Please note that you need quite a bit of documentation and that the rules about whether a document will be accepted are very strict.

My oldest son is totally disabled. He's 18. Since he has never had a job or received a bill, we had a hard time getting together the documents we needed until we applied for SSI, which gave us the piece of mail from a government office we needed to prove his Indiana residence.

My son is mentally incompetent and will never vote. But what if he wasn't as disabled as he is? What if he were capable of voting but not eligible for SSI, not able to get a job and lived with us rent and bill free? Then he'd be screwed.

I think that Indiana has had something like a grand total of 7 cases of in-person voter impersonation over the last decade. That doesn't seem like a serious enough problem to warrant disenfranchising many people, like my son, who are at the margins of society.
posted by double block and bleed at 8:10 PM on November 3, 2012 [4 favorites]


to get Medicaid- need to pay tax
to get medicare - need to pay tax
to drive a car- need to pay tax
to fly on a plane - need to pay tax
to get a professional license – need to pay tax
to get food stamps- need to pay tax
to get a mortgage - need to pay tax
want to vote - need to pay tax oh wait....

Furthermore, some of these things are not like the other.....

who cares what you have as long as you vote democrat

What Republicans know is that if every Democrat-leaning person in this country actually did vote, Democrats would likely win every election for the forseeable future. And THAT is the real reason why we have the GOP concern trolling over the virtually nonexistent "problem" of voter fraud. You know what's an easy way to win elections? Put burdens up for people who may have a harder time fighting back. Things like poll taxes, literacy tests, voter ID.

Same shit, different decade.
posted by triggerfinger at 8:33 PM on November 3, 2012 [18 favorites]








Perhaps a free Federal ID card would solve this problem. Standardized across the States, with a magnetic strip, chip, and relevant information on it - home address, encrypted SSN, fingerprints, DNA profile.
The ID # could be used to replace the SSN now used to track Americans in various databases (which is not what it was intended for).

I'm sure the people who want to reduce voter fraud would have no problem with a free, new, secure, nation-wide ID format.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:09 AM on November 4, 2012 [1 favorite]


Search For Mythical Voter Fraud Leads To False Sighting In Ohio
The Human Events story quoted two anonymous pollwatchers complaining of "Somalis who cannot speak English" arriving in groups, being given a slate card by Democratic party workers outside the polling place, then coming in and being instructed by Somali interpreters on how to vote. The article also raised the question of "whether a non-English speaking person is an American citizen."
It's wrong to want to destroy servers, right?
posted by jaduncan at 1:02 AM on November 4, 2012 [2 favorites]


It's what I say every election season: voting should be compulsory for US citizens, and every ballot should have the following choices, in addition to the candidates' names:

A: All candidates are too far to the left of my views
B: All candidates are too far to the right of my views
C: Abstain from voting
posted by dubold at 2:17 AM on November 4, 2012


My elderly mother-in-law, life-long Republican, had one hell of a time getting the so-called free voter ID in Pennsylvania. She was lied to more than once, charged money (more than once), sent back for more documentation (more than once) and on and on. My wife, a Democrat, spent a lot of time getting her mother to the places she needed to be, when she needed to be there (drivers license center, open just twice a week, take a number and wait) to get this done.

In the end, mother-in-law got the ID, but said she was so disillusioned by the Republicans making her jump through all those hoops, she just might vote for Democrats. So heckuva job, Corbett.

By the way, the courts struck down (actually just delayed) the ID requirement in Pee Yay, but the state kept running the same "Show ID" advertising, and when pressed, ran misleading ads implying photo ID is still needed.

For folks in Pennsylvania - poll workers will ask for your ID, even though you can still vote if you don't have it. I would ask you that, as long as it does not hold up a long line of voters, to refuse to show photo ID even if you have it. This will help show that photo ID is a bad idea.
posted by tommyD at 4:40 AM on November 4, 2012 [4 favorites]






Preposterous, they are.

Here's the irony: keep snapping your fingers, keep the elephant away.
posted by mule98J at 9:13 AM on November 4, 2012


Brutal and blunt:
This shit should make any REAL American PUKE.
The fact this is such a rare reaction makes me very frightened, and I cry sometimes.
posted by Goofyy at 9:51 AM on November 4, 2012 [1 favorite]




A man sees a sign by the side of the road reading, "Republican puppies, $50." He stops for a look, but he's headed out of town and can't take one. Six weeks or so later, he passes by again. This time, the sign reads "Democrat puppies, $100."

He stops and looks and he says, 'Wait a second, these are the same puppies,' and the guy says, 'Yeah, but now they have their eyes open.'
posted by ArkhanJG at 9:41 AM on November 5, 2012 [1 favorite]




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