No Wonder Libs Don’t Want Voter ID Programs

[Red Arrow]

I'm going to have a Marshalls now.  How's that for a thread ender?

You need an excuse to have a Marshall's.  I thought you are single/divorced.

[Conan71]

Conan, you're arguing convenience versus need. And they're all personal to you and people like you. There are people in this world who live differently than you. They still get the right to vote, and maybe you should show a little consideration for their preferences when going on a crusade against a boogey man. This country isn't just about you and your inane fears. We all have to live together in it.

You need clear and convincing evidence of significant wrongdoing before you mess with one of our most fundamental freedoms. What you've got now is fear and speculation.

RA, a poll tax isn't right just because you can afford it.

Fear and speculation is precisely what the campaign against Romney is in the first place.

Those people you talk about also need an ID to even cash a money order or get utilities turned on, rent an apartment, or get a $100 loan from Signature Loan Co.  My first career after I quit college was as a loan collector for a "B" loan company for two years. I'll gladly swap stories about people who live hand to mouth and an all cash existence.  I know far more about the underside of society than you would ever believe and it's all through direct interface and even going through a rough time in my own life for about a year. 

Getting an ID isn't a hardship.  It costs roughly three packs of Marlboros and probably doesn't mean going any further than going to Warehouse Market for the weekly groceries.


I call complete BS.

[Conan71]

Requiring someone to spend money before they can vote is a poll tax, no matter what you call it or how convenient it may make your life in other ways.

How do you feel about a free ride to the Social Security office for a free photo ID?

No claims of poll tax then.  What's the next excuse?

[Red Arrow]

I call complete BS.

But disenfranchising voters sounds so nobel.  (I'm practicing to be a Democrat again  )

[Red Arrow]

How do you feel about a free ride to the Social Security office for a free photo ID?

No claims of poll tax then.  What's the next excuse?

Can't get out of the house (except to get some Obama money), inconvenient, violation of their rights, it's a Republican effort to keep Democrats from voting.......

[guido911]

Can't get out of the house (except to get some Obama money), inconvenient, violation of their rights, it's a Republican effort to keep Democrats from voting.......

THIS is what the "libs" are looking for:



Screw the effort to put an end to those who hurt the right to vote of those legally entitled.

[Ed W]

There's an interesting article in the Washington Post about the deleterious effects of one party rule.  DC has a closed primary that magnifies the influence of fringe groups, and Dana Milbank notes that this effectively disenfranchises roughly 117,000 eligible voters.

"We in the District have, in short, seen the future. We have already arrived at where the rest of the country is headed. The voters have checked out. The primaries have been hijacked by a small, unrepresentative group that chooses bad candidates. And these candidates, confident that nobody is paying attention, brazenly ignore the already-flimsy campaign-finance laws."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-dc-shows-what-comes-from-one-party-rule/2012/07/13/gJQASXmQiW_story.html

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?  Remember this however; he's talking about Democrats.  Political success brings with it the seeds of its ultimate failure.  The Republican effort to limit the right to vote and enable permanent Republican majorities - if successful - could produce a backlash that would keep them out of power for a generation or more.  The party is already deeply divided between the increasingly irrational tea party types and the more pragmatic 'country club' elitists. Remember too, that the excesses of the so-called Gilded Age brought about the reforms of the Progressive Era at the beginning of the twentieth century.  It was Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, who acted to break up the big trusts and their strangle hold on American business.     

[godboko71]

People at the polling place at Victory require photo ID and would not accept the voter registration card or a photo ID less then 30 days expired. So with the volunteers not knowing the rules its hard to say people who should be able to vote can.

[guido911]

This dead dog received a voter registration?

[guido911]

The Republican effort to limit the right to vote to those persons legally entitled .....

I helped you there. You just forgot to include that.

[nathanm]

This dead dog received a voter registration?

Yeah, I get credit card applications for people who don't exist. What exactly is the problem here? You act as if this is an election board registering a dead dog, but it's not. If it were I'd like to see the person who signed the application prosecuted. Is there a particular reason you want to make it harder for US citizens to exercise their right to vote? Doesn't enforcing the laws on the books already accomplish that goal? For someone who hates laws and regulations, you sure are for a lot of them.

[Ed W]

" The Republican effort to limit the right to vote to those persons legally entitled ....."

I helped you there. You just forgot to include that.

Thanks for the assist, Guido.  It's heartening to see your agreement with the idea that our constitutional rights trump obstructive state laws and obstructive state legislators.

[Red Arrow]

Thanks for the assist, Guido.  It's heartening to see your agreement with the idea that our constitutional rights trump obstructive state laws and obstructive state legislators.

Now all we have to do is agree on what is and isn't obstructive.

I'm not going to hold my breath waiting.

[Red Arrow]

Is there a particular reason you want to make it harder for US citizens to exercise their right to vote?

I think the election board should make an appointment with me to bring the voting machine and ballot to either my home or place of work.  It is just terribly difficult to get to the polling place.  Right now it's 0.8 mi. It has been as much as 1.6 miles away.   Then on a really big election, I have to wait in line.  The only reason I put up with it is to exercise my right to complain vote.

[nathanm]

I think the election board should make an appointment with me to bring the voting machine and ballot to either my home or place of work.  It is just terribly difficult to get to the polling place.  Right now it's 0.8 mi. It has been as much as 1.6 miles away.   Then on a really big election, I have to wait in line.  The only reason I put up with it is to exercise my right to complain vote.

Nice dodge. (ever heard of an absentee ballot? you're being ridiculous.) How about you answer the question. Why do you want to make it harder for US citizens to vote?

I would have no problem with this (other than the idiotic framing as some kind of victory for Republicans, this shouldn't be a bucking partisan issue!):

http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_21077849/feds-let-florida-access-noncitizen-list-purge-voter

Except that if they do things the way they did in 2000 with the felon "list," they'll almost certainly sweep my SO's (US citizen) dad up in this. He has an incredibly common name. There are something like 46 people identically named on DHS' watch list, to give you an idea of the commonness of the name. There are at about 27 of them in the ZIP code he lives in. Are they really going to dump every single one of those voter registrations if action isn't taken? What if he's out of the country and not receiving mail when the notice comes?

Or her uncle, for that matter, who is presently living on a small island elsewhere in the world, thanks to our stupidly expensive health care, but is still eligible to vote in federal elections, being a US citizen.

IOW, the idea is sound, but Florida's history on such matters leaves me with no confidence it will be done right. This isn't speculation, just going on their recent history.