jerks

[acroyear]

Top court upholds photo ID voting law - Yahoo! News:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld a tough state law requiring voters to show photo identification

[...]

"The Indiana law purports to solve a problem that does not exist" - U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York

oh hell, why don't we just nationalize the entire damn ID process, DNA-embedded and all and just get it over with.

Call it "Identi-Eeze". Douglas would love it.

Comments

[stori-lundi.livejournal.com]

We *have* a national ID called a SSN. I think the new national ID proposal is redundant and dumb.

Just because the process is flawed doesn't mean that it isn't a valid one. It's like saying that the TSA screeners can never catch everything so we shouldn't bother with screening in the first place. If people really value the vote, they'll get IDs and work to get the process changed. I agree that it is harsh but it is a step in the right direction. I seriously doubt that it is a ploy of the Republicans to stomp the Dems. ID fraud is rampant here in the US and having a valid voter ID card has a of government ID. Without photo ID, someone could steal a dead person's name, show a forged paystub or credit card, get a voter ID card, and in turn get a new SSN, driver's license, or whatnot. That worries me a lot more than people illegally voting.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

I seriously doubt that it is a ploy of the Republicans to stomp the Dems.

Then why are so few Dems in favor of it and why is it, in EVERY STATE its proposed in, proposed by Republicans, and only AFTER they get into the majority?

the SS card IS "valid ID" without a photo. so is a birth certificate.

so is, believe it or not, a baptism record.

all three could get anyone a falsified ID and from there a falsified voting card.

but what is the damn point? why, as has been stated time and time again, pass a law to prevent a crime that has never taken place on a scale large enough to change an election?

you *really* think there are large swaths of black, hispanic, and east asian people going out of their way to fake their right to vote and vote multiple times? really? as much trouble as their neighborhoods have in just getting to the polls at all (consider the minority suburbs of Ohio in '04 for one extreme example).

ID fraud may be rampant, but voter fraud isn't. anybody who tells you otherwise knows that those who would vote would vote against them.

we're spoiled in the places we've lived and the families we've had that we've not had to deal with the rampant corruption of those who run the ID process in other jurisdictions and go out of their way to make it impossible for certain minorities to complete the process, all because "they feel like it". I know you don't want to believe there's still "whitey" out there doing this to people who have done nothing wrong and hold nothing against other people, but it does still happen. When the minorities simply decide not to give bigoted assholes in power the satisfaction of ruining lives on a whim, I tend to think "go for it".

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

see, what you're missing is that the centers where one can get those IDs aren't "everywhere" like the are around Fairfax, or even Harrisonburg.

People are being told that the nearest one to them in, say, some part of Pennsylvania or North Carolina or name any other battleground state is more than 50 miles away. btw, they don't have a car, and can't take a whole day off much less shell out $50 for the bus only to be told they're missing some piece of documentation that nobody mentioned on the phone when they called to set up the appointment and the next appointment happens to be after the election's deadline in 3 weeks and...

that happens. it happens to people DAILY. until THAT is fixed, any law requiring such an ID must be considered to be discriminatory. fix the process FIRST and then I'll support the ideal intent of that law.

[thatliardiego.livejournal.com]

I seriously doubt that it is a ploy of the Republicans to stomp the Dems.

Alas, there is more than forty years' worth of evidence to the contrary, going all the way back to the so-called "ballot security" programs of the GOP when the young lawyer William Rehnquist was trying to ensure that ethnic minorities in Arizona would not be able to vote in the 1966 presidential election, as documented by John Dean.

A 1994 study done by the Justice Department showed that blacks are four to five times less likely to have photo ID or a driver's license than any other voters. In 1986, "voter caging" program in New Jersey implemented to stop alleged voter fraud was found to be illicitly preventing minorities from voting, and the courts imposed a standard of strict scrutiny on similar programs in the future.

The GOP has nevertheless worked to drive down minority turnout at every opportunity by claiming massive amount of unproven voter fraud. Yet Project Vote of the Brennan Center for Justice at Columbia University found virtually no widespread voter fraud despite the claims of the GOP.

Lastly, in response to your previous statement, voting is not a privilege -- it is a right. And as such, the government should show just cause in putting any obstacles in the way of the voter trying to exercise that right.

[pyllgrum.livejournal.com]

Exactly. DRIVING is a privilege; in a Republic, voting is a right merging upon a duty.

And the Social Security Number is NOT an ID. If you read the card it clearly states "For Social Security and Tax Purposes - NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION". For YEARS the Republican Party, before being overtaken by Neocons, cried foul at any attempt to produce a National ID.. and frankly, echoes of WWII movies "papieren, bitte" still effect my willingness to produce and support such a record.