Discussion: GAO Study: Voter ID Laws Cut Turnout by Blacks, Young

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Discussion for article #228618

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“Voter ID Laws Cut Turnout by Blacks, Young.”

Mission accomplished.

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Playing politics with the right to vote is about as un-patriotic and un-American as you can get.

I have spoken with people who defend this approach saying “there is so much fraud without this”. These lies and twisting of the truth are a cancer that have spread into their brains and destroyed their ability to think.

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A Nate Silver analysis (in 2012, I think) pooh-poohed the impact of Voter ID and other restrictions. These numbers seem to indicate that impact is much more significant than he concluded.

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This canard by the GOPig Righties was the proverbial “solution for which there was NO problem.”
It was naked politics, pure and simple, and the bottomfeeding Cons and Baggers, who see themselves as ‘super patriots,’ have with this kind of in-your-face voter suppression spit in the faces of all the people in this country’s history who have fought and died for the very right these political hacks have sought to take away from so many. Breathtaking and obvious hypocrisy by that diminishing GOP cult.

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Our society is highly mobile and highly technological. It’s ridiculous that we don’t have a federal ID card which would eliminate the requirement for most other forms of identification.

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Well, DUH! That’s the whole point!

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Democrats should run ads aimed at young people around the theme that “they”, old white male Republicans, don’t want you vote and the same with African-American voters.

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Here in Colorado, I got a visit from Fairshare, a progressive org. They are working endlessly to ensure Democrats get out and vote. I’m hopeful that the Fairshare GOTV isn’t just limited to Colorado.

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Job well done Robert’s court. You are going to have one hell of a legacy and a lot of foot notes in the history of our democracy and your decisions that helped destroy it. Job well done. I hope the Kochs paid you well or were you cheap to buy? How much did they give Scalia and Thomas? How much for Alito? Hell he would probably sell his own mother out so what the hell do the American people mean to him?

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Now the Republican plan has come to light officially. This is the biggest anti-democratic and anti-people ‘SIN’ Republicans have committed. Now the democratic-loving people all over the country should come forward on November 4th. next and teach the Republicans a good lesson. The need Koch, they need adelson, not the people.period.

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Vote suppression in this way is a losers tactic. No amount of it will be sufficient to stem the demographic tide rolling over the GOWPP (Grand Old White People Party) in the years to come. Rove and some of the smarter Republicans saw this years ago, but the rabid base is too much a captive of its nativist id to realize it.

If you want to see the future of Republicanism, look at California, where the party has shrunk to an irrelevant rump too small to affect anything.

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Exactly right, mrgavel! The attempt to disenfranchise minority and elderly voters should spur people to get out there and vote. Why accept this shit? If they think they can win by simply making it harder for you to vote, the response should be, “Bring it on, motherfucker! I will stand in line until the sun goes down if I have to.”

You sick bastards will not take over this wonderful country by dint of cheating, by making it harder for me to vote. NO!

I THINK; THEREFORE I AM; THEREFORE I VOTE!

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As we have said many times about many GOTP-based injustices: It’s not a bug – it’s a feature!

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Lincoln’s words are truer than ever:

“As a nation, we began by declaring that “all men are created equal.” We now practically read it “all men are created equal, except negroes” When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read “all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.” When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy” (Lincoln to Joshua Speed, August 24, 1855)

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No kidding. I would be as disgusted by voter suppression laws if Dems did it. I don’t know how they would… maybe by disallowing older Christian white men who play golf, somehow.

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Damn the roberts male conservatives on the SCOTUS

Call them out:
1.202.479.3000 or 1.202.479.3211

Helping GUT VOTING RIGHTS IS UN_AMERICAN!

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That estimate for the cost of obtaining the required ID is just the fee – can we say “poll tax” – that a state charges. It doesn’t count the cost of time off work, the cost of traveling to whatever non-local office actually issues the ID (when it’s open), or the cost in time and money of assembling all the requisite supporting documents (don’t have a certified copy of your birth certificate handy? get ready to head into a maze that would make Kafka weep).

(Oh, and yes, in theory if you prove that you’re poor enough, a state is required to give you ID at no cost. But that doesn’t reduce all the other costs, and it imposes yet another daunting paperwork burden that no one is going to help you with.)

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I looked into what it would take to get a state ID here in SC, and if you are a woman who has changed her birth name due to marriage, you also have to bring your marriage certificate(s) to the DMV office along with your birth certificate, social security card and proof of residency.

If you’re requesting an absentee ballot, on the other hand, you can get one by downloading the request form from the internet and signing the affadavit that you have a legit reason not to vote at the polls.

Oh, and you can REGISTER to vote without a picture ID, (just the proof of residency (utility bill or bank statement or something like that) so all that paperwork is not required to register and ask for an absentee ballot. You have to provide birthdate and social security number, and draw a little map of where you live, but no other documents are required (although they do make it SEEM like you’re supposed to provide them, if you don’t read the fine print).

I would like to see a study examining the level of fraud in ABSENTEE balloting as opposed to IN-PERSON voting.

(Not that I don’t think it would be ideal to have everyone vote by mail, with a carefully examined signature being all the proof required.)

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The amount of work/inconvenience, etc. can be used as an “undue burden” argument, it seems to me. In SC, it’s clear, one class of voters, those who vote in person at the polls, are burdened more than the class of voters who vote absentee.

Maybe the Democrats should make a show of wanting to crack down on fraud in absentee voting, and see what happens.

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