As the election season heats up, so does the debate on voter identity. One side of the issue argues that stringent voter identity laws are necessary so as not to dilute the vote of legitimate voters. The other side argues that the strict controls have the effect of disenfranchising legitimate voters.
A recent story in the Huffington Post cites examples from both sides of the argument, ultimately claiming that it appears more legitimate votes are disenfranchised than fraudulent ones prevented.
More than two dozen states have some form of ID requirements, and 11 of those passed new rules over the past two years. Republicans have been the driving force behind this, claiming that in previous years convicted felons and the deceased have voted.
Democrats and voting rights groups claim the ID laws suppress votes, particularly among the elderly, poor and minorities. These groups tend to lean Democratic.
In each of these cases, the numbers are not particularly high when you look at the big picture. But when you take into account that the 2000 presidential race was decided by a 537-vote margin in Florida, it’s not hard to see why this is such a hot-button issue right now.
What do you think? Are voter ID laws necessary to avoid diluting a genuine vote, or are the laws more likely to disenfranchise a legitimate voter?
Recently there was a man on the street interview and one of the recipients asked, "What's a founding father?" Too many i-pods and telephones in public schools and not enough support for discipline in the classroom so that kids can focus on learning these things? lol
A segment on the The O'Reilly Factor where Mr. Watters takes "walk-abouts" asking our College age folks questions about the political landscape, capturing answers that belong on Jay Leno's Tonight Show - due often to the sheer brilliance of the replies on display. Ah the upcoming leaders of our economy http://video.foxnews.com/v/1727706630001/watters-world-july-4th-edition http://video.foxnews.com/v/1523354558001/watters-world-spring-break-edition/
6/21/12 Multistate scam abusing New Mexico's law that allows illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. The indictment unsealed late Tuesday said the New Mexico residents would help people in South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia get the licenses. And this occurred AFTER the period where TENN itself issued its own licenses to the undocumented and THEN reversed the practice due to overwhelming increases of related expenses to the state. "It was part of the conspiracy that individuals who were in the country illegally ... and not residents of New Mexico, would obtain driver's licenses from New Mexico using false documents and through false representations," the indictment said. About 92,000 foreign national licenses have been issued in New Mexico since 2003. Out of those, only 16,000 license holders filed a state income-tax return this year, officials say. The indictment comes after authorities earlier this month busted up a driver's license fraud ring in the Eastern New Mexico communities of Clovis and Portales. In the latest case, the homes and businesses of a Rio Rancho man and four Albuquerque residents were raided Tuesday by federal and state authorities in connection with a South Carolina-based scheme. http://www.santafenewmexican.com/localnews/Feds--5-state-immigrant-license-fraud-tied-to-N-M-
I've been showing photo ID for a quite few years now and can't understand why it should be a LESS secure process than buying groceries with a check? Besides we’ve been doing the motor / voter thing as a state for quite a while now too. The DOJ has already ratified the GA law anyway, or is the case misfiled with all the Fast and Furious material the President placed under executive privilege? (Smiles)
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-12/news/ct-oped-0612-byrne-md-20120612_1_voter-fraud-voter-registration-registration-rolls http://www.8newsnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=2421595 http://spectator.org/blog/2011/08/10/acorn-fined-maximum-in-nevada http://www.servicemembers-lawcenter.org/LAW_REVIEW_109.html I deliberately threw out anything that resembled Fox News btw…
Ooooooh yeeeeahh....the Al Franken fun lolol
Sometimes, for the life of me, I believe Brian posts a string of text for use in Google searches to build a case for "Repubs bad - Dems good"
8 News Now - Wow! Great article and another example of how Republicans are attempting to steal the election, this time by trashing Democratic voter registrations. Gotta save this one for the archives but it has nothing to do with anything voter ID would solve. The American Spectator - A hit piece by Matthew Vadum, author of "Subversion Inc: How Obama's ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers." Sorry, I didn't bother reading past that credit. Service Members Law Center - Interesting piece from 2004 about the vagaries of the 2000 Florida ballot problems and issues surrounding how military absentee votes were counted. Nothing about voter fraud although many of us suspect there was some definite election fraud on the part of brother Jeb..
But, once again, since the Government can't seem to be held accountable enough to do what it takes to protect our borders from an immigrational invasion, so it keeps falling on the people to make their adjustments instead. So far, every person I know that ever worked for the ballot counting, have refused to ever vote again but none of them will ever say why. Did they sign some sort of non-disclosure agreement or something? lol They just said they didn't like what they saw and caused them to lose faith in doing it altogether. Same story, different places and times. I am not opposed to proving who you are to vote. People should only vote once, and it should be the right individual doing it. However, my argument probably goes to another article, because I do not like how there's no proof of existence w/o your gov't docs. It's just too spooky for me. We've existed for centuries w/o such things.
Why do you STILL call or form of government a democracy. We are not. The Holder DOJ is much more crooked than any Republican attempt to restrict who votes. How hard is it to provide photo ID? I love watching liberals squirm.
Everybody should have an ID for their own sake. Is voter fraud real or not? I don't know, I just don't know. However, all Americans should be guaranteed security while they exercise their responsibility to vote. I believe requiring people to have an ID goes a long way toward providing that security.
In the meantime, government has grown to such huge proportion, we must now play with the new hand we have been dealt and hope for the best.
I say, that's just wrong, on so many levels I wouldn't know where to start, so I won't. I will, however, pray that no one reads that drivel and believes it. You also said, "Voter impersonation is a non existent problem. This is a blatant attempt by Republicans to steal another election." Are you saying Obama needs the folks with no way of identifying themselves to win the election? If so, that sounds kind of, er, bad.