Show ID to Vote?
I really don’t understand how this would suppress voter turnout, unless people are voting who shouldn’t be.
Looks like this idea caused quite a ruckus in the Texas Senate. The Democrats have just enough votes to keep a bill from coming up for debate–if they are all there and all vote together, which the committed to do.
So, Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst waited until one Democratic Senator, Carlos Uresti, stayed home with a stomach bug to bring it up. The vote was, of course, in the Republican’s favor and an uproar ensued because another Democratic Senator, John Whitmire, had stepped off the floor and his vote wasn’t counted.
After some growling, fist banging, cursing and threats of removal, the Republicans acquiesced and declared they would vote again, figuring nothing would really change since a Republican senator had also been absent from the floor and had not had his vote counted.
Lo and behold, queasy stomach Uresti showed up just in the nick of time to vote with his fellow Democrats.
Looks like the Republicans wanted this to go through to cut down on fraud and Democrats feared it would intimidate voters. I would like to know how it would intimidate LEGAL voters to show a photo ID or two other forms of ID.
Dewhurst says the legislation has been rewritten to make it as easy as possible for a person to prove their legal citizenship.
“Voters can now present military ID, valid employee ID, citizenship certificate, passport, student ID card, handgun permit, utility bill, bank statement, pay stub, mail from a government entity, marriage license, birth certificate, adoption certificate, pilot’s license, hunting license, or even a library card,” Dewhurst said. “What’s so hard about this?”
May 18th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
There are vast sections of urban America where no one has a drivers license. Cars are a nuisance in the inner city. There are millions of Americans who have no ID.
Moreover, it does not help with preventing someone from voting in someone else’s name. For example, if you go to Robinson precinct and say you are Alice Marshall, how do you know Alice Marshall isn’t standing in line behind you.
I will try to look up the data on this, because there is a good deal, but yes, it does have the effect of suppressing the vote and the people sponsoring this legislation know that.
May 18th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
I would agree with you if a drivers license or photo ID was the only way to meet this requirement. What about the second option of showing two other form of ID like utility bills, birth certificate, pay stub….?
May 18th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Two other forms of ID, one of which being a SS Card, works for me.
But c’mon, now…if you remove the ID process, what keeps someone from walking in, and denying the real person the ability to vote?
May 18th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
The knowledge that the real person could call witnesses against them and put them in jail.
What is to keep people from forging ID’s to vote? In a world of laser printers and plastic sheets specially designed to be laser compatible, it is remarkably easy to do.
May 18th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Frankly, with the low turnout in elections, I’d prefer more people vote, even if they have to commit fraud to do it.
May 19th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
When I read this, I thought of that passage in the Jungle, when the bosses took gangs of men from one voting station to the next…
Except those were legal immigrants. Do this, and we will have a flood of Paco’s (I avoided saying beaners!) posing as “John Holloway” and “Steve Dubie.”
Social Security card or naturalization documents along with a photo id should be necessary to vote.
May 19th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Yes, if you don’t have some way of identifying the person, how do you know it’s them? Eliminate the ID process, and you can have voter fraud on such a wide scale.
May 20th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Mr. Whackjob, since American citizens are to lazy to vote you would like to allow non-citizens to vote or citizens who already voted once to vote again?
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:18 pm
The knowledge that the victim can bring witnesses against an ID thief and put him/her in jail has done absolutely nothing to dissuade ID theft so far. What an asinine argument.
Your most valuable tool against ID theft in the polling place is your ID card. If we lost that, then all I have to do is walk in and claim to be someone else. Heck, I can do that all day long. I can vote as many times as I want, using a local phone book as my source for names.
Bravo, liberal Dems. Way to defeat common sense. Again.
May 12th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
"There are vast sections of urban America where no one has a drivers license. Cars are a nuisance in the inner city. There are millions of Americans who have no ID."
(Old, I know)
Alice, there’s really no excuse for that except that urban dwellers are lazy, apathetic losers. No ID? Why? What’s a valid reason for refusing to have ANY ID at all?