Discussion: Voting Rights and Election Law

The rate of Voter Fraud in this country is not significant enough to require people to pay for the right to vote. If they will accept ANY piece of info to verify your ID, then fine. But if these laws require citizens to have a government mandated ID card, which you have to pay to get, then it's bulls**t. period. Wouldn't that just be more government overreach that the conservatives hate so much?

Is voting a right, or a privelage?

There is not a single person, liberal or conservative, who believes non-citizens should be allowed to vote. But the ends, in the case of the voter ID laws, do not justify the means.

And when you have certain politicians talking about how these laws will let 'their guy' win a particular state, it shows the true motive behind them. Nobody with serious knowledge of our elections feels these laws are necessary.

So if voter fraud is a negligible problem statistically, and these new laws would disenfranchise some eligible voters, what then, is the purpose of this debate?
That's right, gaming the system to get the edge, and put those stupid poor people in their place, under the boot of the rich.

 

Honestly, I've never really cared how much voter fraud there is or isn't....I simply think people should be able to prove who they are when they are asked....that's all....I've been registering students for school, and it is a requirement that the parent show an ID, that the student has a SS card, birth certificate (original) shot records, original, and two things that show their address that is on their ID....we have had 2 in 11 days that have not had all of the above, K -- 12th registration.....if those people can get all of that to register their child in school...they can show an ID in order to vote. That is my opinion, and it is not changing, no matter how many times someone replies and says there is not much voter fraud, I think you are about the 7th person to reply with the same thing.....its not changing anything.

 

Voter id is common sense. There is negligible prosecuted or reported cases of voter fraud. That's because it's hard to prove and it's not that hard to do it. Eric Holder's ballot could have been cast by someone else in that Brietbart bust video.

Is it a big problem we should spend billions on? No.

Should the Republicans be trying to hammer through voter laws 3 months before the election because they know it will cost Democrats votes? No.

Should Democrats be against voter id laws because they know they will lose votes? No.

Both sides are using it as a political ploy. It should be something thought out better and given some time to do so. I am totally for voter id laws. No one has a valid reason against it. Assistant programs are already implemented for id's. More can be implemented if it's not costly. It's funny how we live in a world where people can vote without any proof and use food cards to buy lotto tickets and liquor. But you better have an id to board a plane or buy cough syrup.

 

I think this is the key to the issue, what is happening now(all these laws put in last minute) is just a disgrace

 

Looks like someone hit the nail on the head.

 

i dont see what the big deal with this is...

 

The big deal is that it's not needed. As someone has already stated the rate of voter fraud is so slim what's the point? Also, it being used as a Republican ploy to block minority voters who typically occupy most poor cities and states. If they are being forced to go out and pay money to buy an ID to vote, it's going to turn away a lot of people who SHOULD have the right to vote without paying any money.

 

It's just a scam for the GOP to block the minority vote. It's a disgrace IMHO

 

Yeah. I'm not sure I really have more to say. Chaseter put it so well.

 

Well, we had to pass the bill to see what was in it...soooooooooo..... ; )

 

here's a solution- make sure every citizen has an ID, completely free of charge, and then in 4 years we can think about trying out these laws
Its rushing their implementation that causes so many problems

but still: 9% of eligible voters possibly unable to vote with these laws VS. .01% possible vote fraud without the laws
The decision aint tough

 

It's not even that. Since 2000 there have been 10 cases, total, of in-person impersonation voter fraud.

Not ten thousand. Ten. You can literally count it on your hands.

 

It's 4 whole years between elections. FOUR YEARS. If anyone missed out on the last time and didn't make it a priority, the day after, to take care of that, Who's to blame? We find time to do everything else we want to do. We find time to buy new shoes, new clothes, gadgets and iphones.......we take vacations or staycations! We watch stupid reality shows....we "waste time in huge amounts....and how many times during that 4 years do we think "I better get that I.D.?

I have no sympathy for someone who does not have a voter i.d. Black, white or Asian.....Democrat or GOP. When are we gonna take responsibility for our own actions? We aint babies anymore. If it costs some fees, you mean to tell me in 4years, that even the poorest among us cant scrape that together? A part-time job...drawing unemployment....whatever. Ten bucks here, 2 bucks there, ....put it in a cookie jar. Sacrifice. I know that's a bad word today. If we've purchased any of the above items, you know the answer to that question. So yeah, I guess if you gotta remind somebody that it's important, man-----smh.....


We all knew this was coming....4 years ago. There will always be weird exceptions like computer problems. But thats why they're called exceptions. We gotta help folks who got caught up in computer jams and lost files. The majority of the issues are coming from folk who waited til the last minute or who spent their money on other stuff. We gotta do better. oh well........

 

Not sure you understand. The laws people are talking about here have been passed this year. And they are rather clearly politically motivated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuOT1bRYdK8

That's Pennsylvania's Republican house majority leader Mike Turzai commenting on the law he got passed this year, which has now gone into effect.

 

All of you need to watch the latest Daily show......Jon Stewart and company give us all the low-down on what is happening with this( of course with the power of humor )....

 

Pretty bad when the most informative news show is a satirical news show on a comedy channel.

 

10 prosecuted cases. It's illegal to cook meth but I bet more people do it than the number that are caught doing it.

How do you know the person voting is the person that should be voting?

 

Exactly. If the police catch ten people speeding on a particular day on I-75, that doesn't mean only ten people were speeding that day. I guarantee there were far more than that. Those were only the ones who got caught.

Same thing here.

 

*raises hand* I was speeding on I 75.... the other day.

 

Okay. 10 prosecuted cases in the entire United States. Think about that real hard. In a country with more than three-hundred million people, they have only ever prosecuted ten people.

In the state of Pennsylvania, the people who got the bill passed couldn't even present a single case of in-person voter impersonation. Couldn't find evidence for an instance of such fraud.

 

IMO, carrying ID is important, and the fact that some do not have it is ridiculous....the police can't just ask you for your ID, but if they have reasonable suspicion that you have done something unlawful, they can at that point...I think if anything we should be doing everything that we can to make sure that all adults are carrying some type of ID....not necessarily just for voting, because I honestly doubt that those running around with no ID are doing too much voting, just my opinion. But, they need to have some sort of ID....just for everyday things. All of these stores that is their policy to ID under 40 for cigs and liquor, how are they doing that properly? They aren't....restaurants where you have to join their club in order to buy drinks you have to show ID....IMO, it is just important to carry an ID, and we need to make sure that everyone has easy access to getting these through the proper channels, do it through the schools during certain times of the year, DMV's year around, etc.