Requiring Picture ID Not Unconstitutional

[sr71plt]

Sounds to me that a lot of you think that the "American Idol" form of voting would be just fine in elections.

I posit that any legitimate voter in the United States who would have trouble proving they are the voter they claim to be at the polls only needs to work this out with when they register to vote in the first place. And if they are in an area with shady practices, they can easily find someone with knowledge and clout from their chosen party to go through this process with the registrars with them. And if that's not working, they have an eager media to turn to.

This is all a matter of trying to pander to the lowest common denominator in macro solutions rather than isolating and working with the micro problems.

 

[RobDownSouth]

Sounds to me that a lot of you think that the "American Idol" form of voting would be just fine in elections.

I posit that any legitimate voter in the United States who would have trouble proving they are the voter they claim to be at the polls only needs to work this out with when they register to vote in the first place. And if they are in an area with shady practices, they can easily find someone with knowledge and clout from their chosen party to go through this process with the registrars with them. And if that's not working, they have an eager media to turn to.

This is all a matter of trying to pander to the lowest common denominator in macro solutions rather than isolating and working with the micro problems.

I'm curious, what's your take on the state of Oregon and their mail-in ballots?

 

[sr71plt]

I'm curious, what's your take on the state of Oregon and their mail-in ballots?

Beats me. Although my family has a business in Oregon and I almost was born there, I live on the correct coast and don't claim to know much about Oregon anymore. If it's a system of the state issuing postage-paid/registered both ways ballots to every voter and accepting what comes back, it sounds fine to me. It places the burden on the voter to vote or not and protect their ballot themselves. The question of claimed unreceived ballots would make work onerous (but possible with the registration both ways), but, given the charges of unreliable voting machines, which I encountered myself as a polling official, it would be a more assured system, at least as I understand it as working.

On the overall discussion, I just think that some folks are demanding an overarching, universal solution to a very small instance issue or nothing--because they prefer the effect of the nothing and know there isn't going to be an overaching, universal solution that takes every "what if" into account without just setting up mechanisms to deal with the individual "what ifs."

And it's not like voters are ever going to "get" any solution. My favorite story of being an election official is having an airplane crew of Florida residents pop up in a central Virginia polling place from the local airport and from a layover flight from Washington, D.C., to Miami during the Obama-McCain presidential election and assuming they could vote on the fly and unregistered in Virginia in the presidential election as Florida residents. This being folks we had to trust flying us around in the sky (and who were more than slightly inebriated--and belligerent to boot. I let them fill out provisional ballots, which, of course, would be thrown out when they didn't appear at the court house to support their claim to right to vote in that district.)

 

[Boxlicker101]

That would be the case if those running Wisconsin actually wanted more people to vote. But they do not.

I've been saying it for years: the goal of the far right is 1) gain power; and 2) with the knowledge that demographics are working against them, rig the game (restrictive voting rules, Citizens United etc) so that they will never lose power again.

(Snip)

You could say exactly the same thing about any politician, regardless of party. Their primary goal is staying at the public trough for as long as they can.

 

[sr71plt]

You could say exactly the same thing about any politician, regardless of party. Their primary goal is staying at the public trough for as long as they can.

I have no intention of going through life with this sort of sour and over-the-top attitude. Glad it's you with this disease and not me.

 

[BotanyBoy]

If Republicans were honest, which of course they never have been and never will be, they'd admit this Picture ID business is nothing more than an attempt to throw as many obstacles into the path of #ThosePeople's voting in order to delay the demise of #TheWhitePatriarchy as long as humanly possible.

It maybe for them...but in reality it's not all the horrifying things you claim it to be.

If it costs one cent to get the ID needed, it's unconstitutional. Period.

And if it takes 2000 pages of signed and notarized bureaucratic horse shit for poor folks to get a free ID, they can still get a free one and there is no unconstitutional poll tax.

You could say exactly the same thing about any politician, regardless of party. Their primary goal is staying at the public trough for as long as they can.

Funny you don't seem to realize that when it's inconvenient for your partisan views.

You know if everyone started looking at US politics with green colored glass's on ($$) the bullshit would make a lot more sense.

Buuut everyone is more interested in partisanship/hype/fear mongering.....

I have no intention of going through life with this sort of sour and over-the-top attitude. Glad it's you with this disease and not me.

It's not sour and over the top to be real.

IF you want to have a better idea/view of US politics you need to understand that 99.999999% of the time it's all about who's got money, who's trying to get it and the things they will do to/with those in power to get it for themselves or protect themselves from it.

 

[SgtSpiderMan]

The whole thing is a scam to make it difficult for certain people not to vote.

When people can still vote by absentee ballot with no photo ID, and other people can't vote with state issued photo ID this thing doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

 

[BotanyBoy]

The whole thing is a scam to make it difficult for certain people not to vote.

When people can still vote by absentee ballot with no photo ID, and other people can't vote with state issued photo ID this thing doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

Our entire voting system is rigged to make people not vote.

And the latter half I agree with totally.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Poll tax by any other name is still a poll tax.

While rationally you're correct I'm fairly certain the SCOTUS took a case a few years back that boiled down to the difference between a tax and a fee since one would make Obamacare illegal and one was perfectly okay.

And I wept that the highest court in the land was actually going to hear that.

 

[Liar]

When people can still vote by absentee ballot with no photo ID, and other people can't vote with state issued photo ID this thing doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

Consistency is for Communists.