In what I found as a bizarre turn of events the Supreme Court Recently took up a case that will look at the legaility of requiring voters to present IDs to cast their ballots. I must admit I have never seen the issue in why this is such an outrageous requirement. People are asked to present picture IDs all the time for routine tasks. Matthew Segal wrote in an article for the Huffington Post made this claim, "The bill is tantamount to a modern day "poll-tax," that forces many eligible voters to pay for a government-issued photo ID." This is outrageous statment that is aimed at making this a racial issue when it is not one.
While it sounds nice to say this is a unfair requirement IDs are required pretty much to do anything in life these days. Many states actually require the possession of such an ID for identification purposes. I do not see the problem with requiring an ID to vote. It is not a shocking statement to say that there are some people here in America that do not follow the rules. What is wrong with making sure the people who come to vote are who they claim to be. Mr Seagal claims, "One could argue that voter ID laws are more about partisan politics than cleaning up elections, as they primarily affect demographics that suggest a particular party affiliation." One could also argue that people are making an issue out of this because it gets in the way of commiting voter fraud. I firmly believe that the only reason people find this requirement out of line is because it gets in the way of thier attempts manipulate the election system.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-segal/we-card-hard-voter-id-_b_67927.html
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Comments: 29
I cannot imagine someone going to the polls who has not already received either a driver's license or government picture ID. (And I know that if one needs the ID card for welfare and some of those programs, some states pay for them then.)
If the government is willing to give registered voters FREE Voter ID cards to use at the polls, how is this in anyway a poll tax? how does it possibly 'marginalize or silence' any minority vote, unless that minority is not here legally?
Didn't they vote for bush in florida in 2000 ?
Oh wait jeb and harris through those votes out .
http://bestoftoday.gather.com/
It is quite amusing though that conservatives have fought tooth and nail throughout history to refuse all rights to minorities but now have decided that they welcome all votes from all voters AS LONG AS YOU HAVE ID.
Anyway, I still agree that Voter ID's make sense.
The only reason that worker is drinking beer, eating lunch and riding the bus is because:
a. We liberals marched all over the country fighting for his right to ride a public bus
b. We liberals protested stupid ass laws like prohibition and child labor
c. We liberals fought for important legislation like Affirmative Action
You know, if I had asked you 40 years ago if you would be willing to have the State pay for voter ID cards for every legal citizen of the United States, how many of your conservative buddies would have said "sure, no problem"?
1) It would make sense IF there was a voter fraud problem. There has not been, even though the White House was pressuring the DOJ to pressure US Attorneys to find cases to make that point. I spend most election days at polling places - it would be nearly impossible for Republicans or Democrats to pull off a fraud to the point where it would tip even a tight election.
2) The hidden issue is not fraud, it is not the "poll tax" aspect, it is not that poor people are too lazy to get an ID. It IS intimidation. It is that the Republicans believe that it will suppress poor and minority voting because enough people will be afraid that the poll workers will tip off the police, who will run a check on them while they vote and will bust them for some unpaid ticket - or worse. So, they won't come to vote. It is easy for those of us who are more affluent to scoff at this concern, or to not even realize the level of distrust of government and police that exists among the poor and/or minorities.
So, it operates as poll taxes or literacy tests used to - it keeps people from even trying to vote.
Don't for a minute be fooled by this sudden and unexplained Republican campaign!
Even if the DMV office is easily accessible, people who are there just to get an id often have to wait in line along with all the other people are there to get a driver's license.
I encountered both problems when I had to assist my 95 year old mother in getting a photo id so she could get on a plane. I had to drive over 20 miles to an office that was was in the middle of no where and once we got there, it took over two hours to get the I. D.
Many of the close to a million people who lived within a ten mile radius of my mother wouldn't have had a car to even get there. On top of that the time involved could mean having to take time off from work and losing at least a half-days pay. Making it easier for people to register to vote is meaningless if it requires more than being registered to actually vote.
My point was that getting a photo-id can be costly and is often so much more difficult than registering to vote that is cancels out easing voting registration to encourage more people to vote. If we want to require photo-id for so many things, we should make it possible obtain them at more locations that are easily accessable by most citizens and can be obtained more quickly.
I really just dont get it. I work longer hours than most people, but I really dont find it inconvient to go down to get an ID once every 5-7 years. Come on.
Perhaps Florida has more convenient locations where photo id's can be obtained. Our urban area are loaded with people who do not drive and the location of many DMV offices is based on the expectation that a person will travel to them by car.