Posted on 05/01/2008 8:08:37 AM PDT by sickoflibs
By upholding Indiana's voter identification law, the U.S. Supreme Court has virtually ignored the nation's ignominious history of disenfranchising certain groups and sanctioned an overly restrictive solution in search of a problem. While the court's 6-3 ruling is not expected to have a major effect on the coming presidential election, it is likely to encourage more states to follow Indiana's lead, guaranteeing that more Americans could be denied one of the most basic rights in a democracy. Maryland should stick to its convictions and continue rejecting stricter voter ID requirements.
The Indiana law requires voters who show up at the polls to present a photo identification that, for all intents and purposes, can be satisfied only by a driver's license or a U.S. passport. State officials rationalized the law as a way to combat voter fraud, modernize election procedures and deal with an administrative problem of people who had either died or moved away continuing to show up on voter rolls. But challengers of the law rightly pointed to the deterrent effect it can have on the elderly and poor people who don't drive and for whom having to get a government-issued photo ID could be a burden.
But there's no mistaking the trouble with this ruling - it gives a green light to those who want to impose contemporary versions of poll taxes and literacy tests.
Rooting out voter fraud may be a legitimate concern, but ID laws such as Indiana's have taken on a distinctly partisan cast - generally favored by Republicans and opposed by Democrats - and seem to be more about limiting the right to vote. In a nation where voter participation is pretty pitiful, states such as Maryland that have successfully resisted stricter voting requirements come closer to the democratic ideal
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
Major barf alert.
gotta love the B-more S(h)un
“But there’s no mistaking the trouble with this ruling - it gives a green light to those who want to impose contemporary versions of poll taxes and literacy tests.”
What an idiot, showing a photo ID simply means you’re stating you are who you say you are...it has nothing to do with your educational or financial standing.
Then again, I've never been asked for my ID when I've gone to vote in NJ. All I've had to do is sign into a book.
Oh, I Agree! We must not repeat in our voting laws the hideous mistake we're currently making in disenfranchising certain groups from purchasing liquor and cigarrettes as well as disenfranchising certain other groups from cashing checks. Its shocking that we even restrict some groups (those without a library card) from just borrowing library books!
You always have the option of getting a state issued ID card right?
All I ever need to know about Baltimore I learned from “The Wire.” Nevertheless, the waterfront (and I’m NOT talking about Harborplace) and Mt. Vernon are pretty cool. There’s also the Preakness once a year.
These are the same clowns who would scream and howl if the courts demanded that state welfare recipients be drug tested.
Correct. That is what my ex-girlfriend had, as she never learned how to drive (she has lived her entire life in Jersey City, so there was no need).
I would never live in Maryland or buy anything from there. They are , in my opinion, (the Democrats I mean) anti-American.
Two problems.
1) We are not a democracy.
2) You have no constitutional right to vote in federal elections.
A father who has had his driver’s license taken because he failed to pay child support can still vote in Maryland. As I understand it, he must carry the child to the voting booth.
Don’t worry ratmedia, there is NO chance Maryland would enfore fraud free electins even if the USSC specifically ordered it to do so. I’m sure we will see 105% of registered voters turning out in B’more and Philly as usual.
my husband and I are (I hate to say this) in the elderly category, no problem for us. I think everybody that votes have sense enough to get an ID card.
my husband and I are (I hate to say this) in the elderly category, no problem for us. I think everybody that votes have sense enough to get an ID card.
It sure is taking the MSM a long time to produce even one such disenfranchised voter... one would think they would be parading all sorts of people in front of us who can’t vote because they can’t afford to get a photo ID.
If that was the DNC’s true worry then they would organize bus trips taking people to go get ID’s just like they now organize busses to take people to the polls.
An amusing aspect of of all the fuss over ID requirements is that here in Indiana you have to show photo ID to purchase over the counter cough medicines that contain codeine.
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