Every now and then I consider that if I didn’t already have “Valid ID” it would be almost impossible to get it. Social security card? Never had one – my parents told me the number when I was a kid and I duly wrote it down where needed. Birth certificate? Well, I guess I could travel across the country and get an affadavit from one of the surviving relatives of my generation that I’m me, and maybe that would suffice. (My maternal grandfather lived almost his whole life without a birth certificate, because the city hall of the town where he was born burned down when he was about 6. So in today’s world he might not be able to prove his citizenship – and since my grandmother became a citizen from marrying him and immigrating – gosh, maybe I’d better be on the lookout for the INS.)
“Don’t worry, they’ll still be hungry.”
This just perfectly highlights the derpitude and moral turpitude of the Wisconsin GOP’s agenda.
Some is gerrymandering. With Walker, it is largely a function of our gubernatorial elections being held on the ‘off year’, so that he faces (faced) the lower turnout of a non-presidential election year. Otherwise, we are a pretty closely drawn 50-50 state. So it doesn’t take a lot for them to get over 50.
There’s a word for that in our glorious mongrel English language: invidious; calulated to create ill will or resentment or give offense; hateful; offensively or unfairly discriminating; injurious.
Paul Weyrich - “I don’t want everybody to vote”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GBAsFwPglw
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It’s truly crazy the machinations the GOP will go through for the purpose of dicking around with voter identification.
In Virginia, up through the 2008 presidential election, you could vote with ANY ID that had your address on it, and this included a utility bill or bank statement. After Obama won, the GOP tightened that requirement to a state-issued ID (but not necessarily a photo ID). And the state spent millions mailing every registered voter a non-photo voter registration card, which the new law deemed sufficient ID.
Then after Obama won the 2012 election (by a smaller margin than in 2008), they tightened the requirement once again. This time, it HAD to be a photo ID, such as a driver’s license, passport, employment identification, etc. Despite that, in the 2013 state elections for governor and attorney general, the Democrats eked out razor-thin victories. (The Democrat running for lieutenant governor won by a wide margin because his opponent was a Tea Party kook).
At the same time, the state paid for a system under which local registrars could issue photo IDs for voting purposes only. Interestingly, there was NO requirement in that law for voters to show ID to get their new locally issued voter-photo ID. Which meant that suddenly, you could get a government-issued photo ID in someone else’s name.
We are eagerly watching and wondering what the Republican-controlled legislature will come up with next!
…and issued on alternate Thursday’s between 1 and 3 PM at a single suburban office site.
Except the “problem” they are actually trying to solve is non-Republican’s voting …and given that there are still non-Republicans holding office in the state that is obviously still a “problem.”
C’mon. This has nothing to do with voter fraud and everything to do with blocking non-GOPers from voting at all.
Well, folks get to choose. You either make a push to get IDs for folks, or you spend a bunch of time whining about the requirement. Here is a hint: Nothing will change about the requirement before 11/2016. So, put up or shut up.
This, after the state GOP-run legislature eliminated the state-wide board overseeing elections… Sigh…
Now that it looks like The Democrats will win the White House again[no competition,Trump] they are getting crazy
around the country[ secession, etc]
Yet, you never seem to find the same zeal to restore voting rights as to remove them by GOP state legislatures.
Make ID requirement more stringent - Check
Cut voting hours and days - Check
Close down offices that issue proper voting ID - Check
Create ways to get voter ID easily for voters - not so much
And the influence of ‘outside’ money, including the Koch brothers at the beginning of Walker’s reign and the Ricketts family (Chi Cub owners) during the recall. Unsurprisingly, the GOP has been pushing bills recently making all this ‘dark money’ easier to access and harder to trace.
Walker never campaigned on his most extreme moves – nothing about Act 10 until he dropped it on us, nothing about defunding the UW, cuts to state education and health and all the rest. In 2014 he made a half-hearted pledge to serve his full term, so even his presidential stumble was a ‘secret’.
That said, the state Democratic party has not had a strong state-wide candidate for years (outside of the US Senate). The same uninspiring candidate that lost to Walker in 2010 also ran in the recall election, and they seem to have little available on the bench.
But I would love to hear that I’m wrong on that.
Seriously. Bless their heart.
Democratic party policies have created GOP state legislatures. Democrats have decided to be the party of all the special interests. Except working class normal folks. So, legislatures are GOP.
So, the plan for you and the other whining internet warriors is to complain a lot and feel self-righteous, and call everyone a racist. Yep, that’s gonna be effective.
I am not a state legislature.
They don’t even try anymore. That “excuse” is so patently bullshit. They don’t want folks to vote. Low turn out favors them. In time if these local issued ID’s were allowed there would be an effort to get them accepted for voting. And if you do it…make the ID’s you may disprove all the negative speculation ( the bullshit ). So you just say no.
No voting allowed without ID
No ID allowed.
What a country!
Most states require some kind of ID. From Wikipedia:
Strict photo ID in effect: Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. In addition, North Carolina and Wisconsin have strict photo ID laws that are not yet in effect.
Photo ID in effect: Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Rhode Island, and South Dakota.
Strict non-photo ID in effect: Arizona, North Dakota, and Ohio.
Non-photo ID in effect: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Washington.
No ID required at polling place: California, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Washington, D.C. do not require ID to vote.
Thus, this is not an extreme or unusual requirement. However, as per usual, the whining about it is at a standard level.
The real people who want stuff for free are those militiamen taking over a wildlife refuge, federally protected land, and demanding it be turned over to cattle ranchers.