Say What?

[dellinger63]

A woman representing herself as some sort of intelletual doctor just said elderly african americans are being disinfranchised because they are going to be asked for State Issued ID's and because they were born into slavery many don't have the birth certificates needed to get State ID's. Huh?

How many people on this planet are 146 or older? Suprised the MSNBC host didn't correct her.

[Riot]

I would guess that you heard the details of that one wrong.

There are plenty of southern elderly black citizens - descendents of slaves in many cases - who have already had documented trouble getting Republican-legislature required voter ID's because they do not have birth certificates, or marriage certificates, etc - alot of that stuff was recorded only in court houses that have burned down decades ago. Some rural people have their lives recorded only in family Bibles.

The RGA and their legislative arm ALEC put a massive push to get new photo ID laws passed in Republican-controlled states before the 2012 elections, because that markedly and specifically disinfranchises the poor, the black, the elderly and students, that tend to vote Democratic.

It's voter suppression and poll taxes pure and simple, which is why so many lawsuits are being filed over these laws.

This countries demographics show that whites will no longer be the majority by 2050, and the GOP is fighting to maintain control.

March today in New York over Human Rights Violations in the US, including right to vote suppression:

http://www.dailykos.com

For 63 years, Brokaw, Wisconsin native Ruthelle Frank went to the polls to vote. Though paralyzed on her left side since birth, the 84-year-old "fiery woman" voted in every election since 1948 and even got elected herself as a member of the Brokaw Village Board. But because of the state's new voter ID law, 2012 will be the first year Frank can't vote. Born after a difficult birth at her home in 1927, Frank never received an official birth certificate.

There is a record of her birth with the state. But the doctor who signed the record of her birth—which isn't an official certificate—misspelled her maiden name. So she could have pay $200 to have a corrected birth certificate issued; $200 to exercise her right to vote. Welcome to ALEC's America, or as NAACP Sr. Vice President for Policy and Advocacy Hilary Shelton calls it, James Crow Esquire, having to pay for an ID.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund released a report this week, in preparation for today's action, which "exhaustively details how 25 states have passed laws restricting voting rights, either by requiring photo identification or proof of citizenship at the polls, limiting early voting, passing stricter absentee ballot requirements, curbing third-party voter registration drives and venues for registration, implementing stricter felony disenfranchisement laws, and imposing residency requirements that make it harder for people to register to vote after they've moved."

Seventy-five percent of black men in the state of Wisconsin currently don't have a valid ID. In Texas, the ID law wouldn't recognize your student ID, but it would recognize your gun license. It's impossible to look at a bill like the one in Texas and say it's not targeted.

It's hard not to look at the Wisconsin governor's subsequent decision to shut down ten DMVs all in the poorest areas and not feel like he must have known the impact that would have, making it harder for certain communities to have access. We at the NAACP have to deal with the carnage of this everyday. We deal with the students who are frustrated, because they show up at the polls and they're turned away being told that unless they can produce a driver's license from that state [they can't vote,] because their student ID isn't good enough.

[Riot]

Originally Posted by Cardus

Rubbish.

Except that ... ALEC sent out sample voter laws to all GOP governors to get passed. That attendees at the Republican Governors Association meeting two years ago (and press there, too) verified it. It's no secret, and has been public knowledge. ALEC and the RGA certainly are not denying they are doing it, rather they admit they ARE doing it - they simply claim the reason is to "prevent voter fraud", even though only literally a few incidents of "voter fraud" in the past 20 years could be solved by a photo ID. Go read this NYT editorial (link in the below) and please point out the factual inaccuracies?

Voter Suppression Bills Sweep the Country

An editorial in the New York Times linked this wave of voter suppression to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). On ALEC's website, there is a "Voter ID Act" link that is only accessible to members. But Campus Progress obtained a copy of the ALEC Voter ID Model Legislation that provides a roadmap to this coordinated assault on voter rights. Most of the bills being debated require a specific list of state-issued IDs to vote, like a birth certificate, or in Texas, a handgun license. Some end "same day" voter registration often used by students. In others, college student IDs are often not acceptable or other hurdles are created. College students were a key demographic in President Obama's successful 2008 campaign.

Many of the states seeking to enforce these new voter ID bills have newly-elected Republican governors and legislators, including Florida, Ohio, Maine and Wisconsin. This attack on the right to vote comes on top of attacks on public sector unions in these states that makes it harder for unions to bargain, collect union dues and organize political activities.

http://www.prwatch.org/node/10711

[Riot]

Originally Posted by Cardus

Students cannot get official IDs?

Rubbish.

In Wisconsin, all the Universities have to reissue new student ID's to meet the strict requirements of the new Voter Suppression Law.

A new state law requires voters to show a photo identification card at the polls. The law allows university students to use their student ID cards if those cards meet certain state requirements.

Vice Chancellor of Campus Life Vicki Hajewski said the student ID cards that UW-Superior began issuing at the beginning of this semester have been approved by the state to serve as voter ID cards for students.

In addition to displaying a student's name and photo, the new cards now include the student's signature and dates indicating when the card was issued and when it will expire. The signature and dates were needed for the cards to serve as valid identification for voting.

Changing the forms used for the ID cards involved a small additional expense, Hajewski said.

"For us it was an easy decision," she said. "We want our students to vote. Part of our mission is to education civic-minded students, so want to make it easy for them to vote."

In addition to the new student ID cards, students casting ballots in Wisconsin will need to prove they are a currently registered student, which can be done by printing a copy of their fee schedule through the E-Hive portal. They also will need to show proof of a local address.

That last paragraph? Pure voter suppression, and there is zero denying it. Zero.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Cardus

Students cannot get official IDs?

Rubbish.

people have to have id's to drive, to get utilities connected, to have a job, to sign for a refinance on a home loan (i know because i just did it last night) to get a med check for life insurance ( just went thru that today) to get benefits...for myriad reasons. voting is a right, but i'd think it's also something that people want to make sure is done correctly, is valid, isn't fraudulent. making this voter id law to be some sort of nefarious scheme imo is absolutely ridiculous.
but then, i guess when someone is biased and believes that one party is the ultimate evil and is all that's wrong with the world, then they're going to paint anything supported by said party as shady at best.

[Riot]

Originally Posted by Danzig
people have to have id's to drive, to get utilities connected, to have a job, to sign for a refinance on a home loan (i know because i just did it last night) to get a med check for life insurance ( just went thru that today) to get benefits...for myriad reasons. voting is a right, but i'd think it's also something that people want to make sure is done correctly, is valid, isn't fraudulent. making this voter id law to be some sort of nefarious scheme imo is absolutely ridiculous.
but then, i guess when someone is biased and believes that one party is the ultimate evil and is all that's wrong with the world, then they're going to paint anything supported by said party as shady at best.

First, the ability to vote is enshrined for all citizens in the Constitution, and has nothing at all do with what you need to do different other things: drive, to cash a check at your bank, get life insurance, get a home loan. None of those things is a constitutional right like voting is. So they cannot be compared.

You do not have to be able to drive, get a home loan, have insurance, get a mortgage, to be able to vote if you are a citizen of the United States. If you are a citizen of the US, you still have the right to vote even if you are homeless and unemployed, can't drive and don't have a bank account.

The only requirement for voting in the United States of America is that you are a citizen over the age of 18.

Secondly: well, no, 'Zig. Republicans came in, in 2010, and suddenly said stricter voting requirements have to be implemented to "prevent voter fraud". Except there are not massive instances of documented "voter fraud". They do not have any examples of that, that can be prevented by starting a voter ID card program.

Their premise and reason is an outright lie in the first place. And the truth is that the laws they are indeed impacting people that tend to vote Democratic. Those are simply facts.

When you hear hoofbeats in the United States, you think horses. Not zebras.

I find it amazing that the party that thoroughly embraced false and ridiculous information about ACORN, resulting in defunding and ending the organization in Congress for what turned out to be lies, blandly denies any possible untoward actions by their trying to implement ALEC advised laws.

[Riot]

How the Koch-Funded ALEC Works to Deny Voting Rights; Brave New Film Highlights Voter Suppression
Submitted by Lisa Graves on November 8, 2011 - 3:38pm

... snip ...

After the 2008 presidential election -- in the wake of the highest general election turnout in nearly 60 years (particularly among university students and African-Americans) -- corporations and politicians on ALEC's "Public Safety and Elections" Task Force voted to approve "model" voter ID legislation as a policy priority for members. (The "private sector" co-chair of that task force at the time was the National Rifle Association.)

ALEC also devoted time to disseminating talking points that pushed the pretext for changing voter laws, the meme of "Preventing Election Fraud," which was the cover story of the Inside ALEC magazine.

Voter ID legislation based on ALEC's template was introduced in states across the country and passed in at least fourteen states. The ID requirements had been kicking around for years since they were initially pressed for by white Southern politicians after President Clinton's national voter registration legislation led to increased percentages of African Americans registering to vote. But this discredited legislation had little traction until ALEC took it up to promote in 2009. (Even then state representative Scott Walker, then an ALEC legislator, tried to get into the act a decade ago, but his effort to echo Alabama's legislation went nowhere in Wisconsin.)

Despite all the hype about voter fraud, the statistical reality is that such fraud in the U.S. is exceedingly rare. Voter suppression legislation based on ALEC's "model" will, however, have a statistically significant effect of depriving many American citizens of their right to vote.

According to a recent report, approximately five million eligible voters across the country will be adversely affected by the new requirements, particularly the elderly, people with disabilities, people of color, and students.

What this means is that huge numbers of Americans will be blocked from exercising their fundamental right to vote as a result of ALEC's efforts and the self-serving politicians that have forced these changes into law.

... snip ...

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/11/...hlights-voter-

[Riot]

Even though one under the United States Constitution, in Article VI, section 3, stipulates that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." The Constitution, however, leaves the determination of voting qualifications to the individual states. Over time, the federal role in elections has increased through amendments to the Constitution and enacted legislation, such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965.[1]

At least four of the fifteen post-Civil War constitutional amendments were ratified specifically to extend voting rights to different groups of citizens.

These extensions state that voting rights cannot be denied or abridged based on:

* Birth - "All persons born or naturalized" "are citizens" of the US and the US State where they reside (14th Amendment, 1868)
* "Race, color, or previous condition of servitude" - (15th Amendment, 1870)
* "On account of sex" - (19th Amendment, 1920)
* Washington, DC, Citizenship, restoring voting rights for only Presidential Elections after 164 year suspension by US Congress (23rd Amendment, 1961)
* (For federal elections) "By reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax" - (24th Amendment, 1964)
* Wealth or failure to pay fees - (Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663 (1966))
* "Who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of age" (26th Amendment, 1971).