NAACP Protests Racist Voter ID Laws

[Warriorbird]

No games. I tire of this. Why this PC community of seemingly educated people believes that our elections need the kind of protection that a state issued id card provides is beyond me. There are no facts to support this fear.

They don't actually believe it. They just want the Democrats to have less votes.

[cwolff]

They don't actually believe it. They just want the Democrats to have less votes.

That is the truth.

[Candor]

They don't actually believe it. They just want the Democrats to have less votes.

Wrong. I truly and completely believe you need to prove who you are to vote. Period.

It may (or may not) be that Republicans are demanding unreasonable forms of identification. I'll research the issue a bit more. But you have to prove who you are, and I believe that to the core.

[Candor]

Let me ask what may be a stupid question here.

When I ask "why don't these people have state issued IDs", a very common response is that people can't get to the facility where they are issued. It's not so much the cost ($20 for an ID that lasts 4-5 years in my state), or that they don't have the right paperwork (in some cases, anyway), it's getting to/from the facility and getting the time off from work.

So here's the stupid question. Why doesn't the state come to them? Invest in a few large mobile vehicles and drive to the areas (perhaps in the evenings) where there are a lot of voters without state IDs.

There might be a good answer to that question, but I can't think of one offhand...

[Warriorbird]

Let me ask what may be a stupid question here.

When I ask "why don't these people have state issued IDs", a very common response is that people can't get to the facility where they are issued. It's not so much the cost ($20 for an ID that lasts 4-5 years in my state), or that they don't have the right paperwork (in some cases, anyway), it's getting to/from the facility and getting the time off from work.

So here's the stupid question. Why doesn't the state come to them? Invest in a few large mobile vehicles and drive to the areas (perhaps in the evenings) where there are a lot of voters without state IDs.

There might be a good answer to that question, but I can't think of one offhand...

The elected officials in many states that want to reduce turnout certainly wouldn't want that result.

[waywardgs]

If concern about voter fraud was really the issue that would be the solution.

[Candor]

If concern about voter fraud was really the issue that would be the solution.

Isn't the point to prevent voter fraud before it happens? This is why I have problems with that sort of response.

I appreciate there are people who do not have the right motives. That doesn't, for me, change the issue.

[cwolff]

Isn't the point to prevent voter fraud before it happens? This is why I have problems with that sort of response.

I appreciate there are people who do not have the right motives. That doesn't, for me, change the issue.

We already are preventing voter fraud before it happens. The I.D.'s required under these new laws will do nothing to add integrity to our system.

Here's a study that's been done on the topic. http://brennan.3cdn.net/c176576c0065..._gxm6ib0hl.pdf

This is what the author concludes:

Many of the claims of voter fraud amount to a great deal of smoke without much fire…Most allegations of fraud turn out to be baseless—and that of the few allegations remaining, most reveal election irregularities and other forms of election misconduct, rather than fraud by individual voters. The type of individual voter fraud supposedly targeted by recent legislative efforts—especially efforts to require certain forms of voter ID—simply does not exist.

These voter I.D. laws are an idea from the ALEC which is a conservative think tank/lobbying group. They also brought us the castle and stand your ground laws. In 2012 they disbanded their task force which dealt with these initiatives because they were losing gobs of money from large corporations who didn't want anything to do with this stuff.

[Thondalar]

You're assuming that there is only one way for this to work and that way is an official identification card. The system we have been using for voter registration works and it's been working. What do you want to fix something that isn't broken? That's a rhetorical question because I already know the answer. The reason you want to "fix" it is to suppress the vote of people who are not likely to support your candidates. It's got absolutely nothing to do with fraud.

For the record, there is only a tiny percentage of people who support my candidates anyway, so I really don't have a dog in this fight either way. I just can't see anything wrong with making people identify themselves as citizens when they go to choose the people who run the country. Voting is sort of a big deal, imo. We have to show identification for lesser things every day.

[Thondalar]

It does? Should this particular tax dodger have more legal rights than an alien paying taxes?

I wasn't aware "paying taxes" was the measure of citizenship. Hell, for the first 100+ years of our existence as a country, we didn't even have an income tax. Still managed to build roads, schools, fight a few wars...amazing.