Say What?

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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.

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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

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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.

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

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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).