Posted on 06/22/2011 8:45:35 AM PDT by Uncledave
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WTVN) -- Senate Republicans have slipped a provision that required Ohio voters to present a photo ID at the polls into a package of election reforms. Backers say it will help prevent voter fraud, but opponents say it's nothing more than a poll tax.
Ohio's election chief says he opposes the changes. Secretary of State Jon Husted says voters need to have other options. He says they must be allowed to provide their nine-digit social security numbers in place of photo IDs.
A Republican-led Senate committee added the ID requirement to the bill Tuesday, despite Democratic objections that the provision would lead to voter suppression. The Ohio League of Women Voters' Peg Rosenfield believes it will force more people to cast ballots by mail. She points out the only examples of fraud have been mail fraud.
The House and Senate have passed separate bills that would make a variety of changes to state elections. The photo ID requirement comes as the chambers are working out the differences in their proposals.
The Senate's government oversight committee planned to vote on the measure Wednesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
“A Republican-led Senate committee added the ID requirement to the bill Tuesday, despite Democratic objections that the provision would lead to voter suppression.”
If you define “voter suppression” as in preventing illegal aliens and bused-in out-of-staters from voting, then I am all for it!
We all KNOW what happened in Ohio in 2008......
Don’t they know that by law it is ILLEGAL to use one’s Social Security number as identification??
As an important swing state, this bill being passed would be big for our side.
After the 2004 election I was watching returns at the lounge of a function hall where political events are held. Never considering that I was a Republican, A guy at the bar next to me told me how he and his carload of friends from Southie voted 12 times that day. They use the List of Persons for Registered Voters and check it against the Inactive List. Then they go with the odds that that person will continue the trend not to vote.
The election fraudsters always want to amend bills to let people vote without I.D.’s by showing some other form of proof, in this case, giving their SS number. Fine. But make the penalty for falsifying these “provisional” ballots so severe (mandatory jail time and a revocation of voting rights) that people will think twice before trying to cheat.
They have no arguments. Nothing to say. They are the party that relies on voter fraud. It’s nice to see them be exposed like this to come out with their lame excuses and be against this.
I'd be happy to show my passport or leave a fingerprint. In NYS it's easier to register to vote than it is to get a fishing license.
And if we treated voter fraud like the treason it is, we'd have a heck of a lot less of it.
My opinion is that if an American citizen is too stupid or lazy to bother getting an ID or so uninformed they don’t realize they need one until election day, they don’t need to be voting anyway. Of course that’s why democrats oppose it so strongly, they’ve got a lock on the stupid, lazy and uniformed vote. Not to mention the illegals, felons, and people who vote in more than one district who don’t want this requirement for obvious reasons.
The Privacy Act of 1974 (Pub. L. 93-579, in section 7), which is the primary law affecting the use of SSNs, requires that any federal, state, or local government agency that requests your Social Security Number has to tell you four things:
1: The authority (whether granted by statute, or by executive order of the President) which authorizes the solicitation of the information and whether disclosure of such information is mandatory or voluntary;
2: The principal purposes for which the information is intended to be used;
3: The routine uses which may be made of the information, as published annually in the Federal Register, and
4: The effects on you, if any, of not providing all or any part of the requested information.
The Act requires state and local agencies which request the SSN to inform the individual of only three things:
1: Whether the disclosure is mandatory or voluntary,
2: By what statutory or other authority the SSN is solicited, and
3: What uses will be made of the number.
In addition, that section makes it illegal for Federal, state, and local government agencies to deny any rights, privileges or benefits to individuals who refuse to provide their SSNs unless the disclosure is required by Federal statute.
I voted in Ohio for 30 years and needed to show my DL every time.
Where did you vote? It's only been in the last few years that I've been required to show any ID at all. Before that I just gave them a name and address and they handed me a ballot. Even under current law you can use a utility bill or bank statement as an ID, or even cast a provisional ballot with no ID at all.
Democrats sure don’t like it when provisions are made to prevent them from stuffing the ballot box. It should be interesting to see how conservative Ohio really is when the 5-10% of the vote that is illegal doesn’t show up.
Makes it easy for all those visiting college kids to hop in a bus, drive to Columbus, vote early (and often), and drive back to their home state. Isn't that how they amassed so many votes for Obambi in 2008?
I had just moved to Tennessee earlier that year, but I had utility bills from 2 Ohio addresses from the previous year and a half - I probably could have voted illegally in both, but didn't. In fact, I called the election officials in Medina county and told them that I had moved and that they needed to remove my name from the voting rolls so that nobody could fraudulently vote in my name.
This is the results of our education policy.
He says they must be allowed to provide their nine-digit social security numbers in place of photo IDs
This is stupid. A poll worker works in a certain precinct, with certain addresses within it. Therefore, they would need an ID with an address within that precinct and also a photo to match the person presenting the id.
A SSN would do no good whatsoever to determine whether a person is eligible to vote.
This is important, important, important. The swing states like Ohio are the place where these types of bills really need to be passed, so as to prevent the Dems from tipping close elections through fraud.
Sure, we can pass them easily in places like Kansas and Texas, but those states aren’t as likely to be susceptible to Dem fraud efforts - they’re “outside the margin of fraud,” so to speak.
Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Florida, etc. - these are where this battle needs to be fought and won before Nov. 2012.
Maybe the Dems will object less if we make an exemption for dead voters.
As an important swing state, this bill being passed would be big for our side...for many elections to come.
I remember quite well an Ohio judge ruling that "homeless" could use whatever park bench they've parked their a** as a home address in order to vote. Hopefully, this will bring it to a halt.
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