Posted on 03/29/2011 8:58:43 AM PDT by flowerplough
On the list of types of state legislation with the potential for big national impact, voter identification is right up there with moves to reduce collective-bargaining rights of public-sector unions.
Such efforts, which would require voters to provide ID at the polls, are being voted on amid fierce debate in many states. But are they motivated by a sincere desire to eliminate voter fraud, thus ensuring the integrity of the electoral process? Or are they attempts to disenfranchise segments of voters favorable to one party -- guaranteeing the other party an easier route to electoral success in 2012 -- by fighting a problem that doesn't really exist?
That depends on whom you ask.
The bills being considered are overwhelmingly the inspiration of Republicans in legislatures much friendlier to GOP goals after the 2010 midterm elections. "It's no conspiracy," says South Carolina Senate GOP Caucus Director Wesley Donehue. "We haven't talked to anybody nationally. It's all South Carolina based." He said the bill that's making its way through the legislature is one that state Republicans have been pushing for five years. "We want to make sure our elections here are fair, accessible and secure."
"The Republican side will tell you this is to cut down on voting fraud," says Donehue's Democratic counterpart, Phil Bailey, caucus director for South Carolina Senate Democrats. "I will tell you this is something the national and state parties are pushing because of how effective the Democrats have been in getting folks to the polls. They don't like those television images of young people and African Americans lining up to vote for President Obama."
Twenty-seven states require all prospective voters to show some form of ID to vote, according to a 2010 study by the National Conference of State Legislatures, updated in March 2011. Eight (Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan and South Dakota) request a photo ID.
We're trying to disenfranchise the Dead so, Yes, we are trying to hurt the Democrats.
Gee, how could I have guessed?
Gates acted stupidly.
ANYONE opposed to voter ID requirements os simply in favor of electoral fraud and the usurpation of our rights as citizens. Given the multiple requirements for phot ID to merely function in society today, there is no legitimate hurdle to any registered voter obtaining a valid state issued photo ID.
Voter ID is a thinly concealed effort to disenfranchise illegal aliens.
Crock O’ Crap at a voting booth near you, for just 9.99.99 you too can call folks racist because they want you to show your ID, oh the humanity...I think it is quite obvious, like on the TV show COPS, the bad folks never carry an ID...
This should not be hard to accomplish, if this is difficult can you imagine what it will be to starve the beast, defund the federal “gangsta” and eliminate its ability to raise money on us like a friggin mafia..
OK, settle down
..POPCORN? Perhaps a nice Konig’s Pils too.
What do those poor Democrats use when cashing their govment checks? ...their looks?
I was reading that in Texas you could register to vote and vote using a utility bill as proof of ID.
THAT is ridiculous. I am glad its being changed.
Is this author the same Henry Louis Gates who was arrested because police acted stupidly? The same one who taunted the police officer with racial talk of “this is what happens to a black man in America”?????
If so, he has an ax to grind, which is reflected in the thought process behind this article.
Ping!
Alive. Dead. Citizen. Non-Citizen. Registered in two or more states, towns, counties. Imaginary. Living at an existent or non-existent address. Sick. Shut. committed to mental asylums. Incarcerated or Free. Several absentee ballots for each of the above.
Yes, the Democrats get their people to the polls very effectively indeed, often to dozens of polls on election day, usually in federally-funded church vans. Ask the Sanchez Sisters in California. Ask Rossi in Washington State. Ask Al Franken.
This is a national disgrace that started going viral when my favorite President, General Eisenhower, decided to let that lazy and lecherous fool JFK steal the election of 1960. I'd say 50 years is about enough, wouldn't you?
Then that Affirmative Action Nincompoop Holder does think it is OK for the Black Panthers to patrol the precinct polling places because, IMHO, he and the Kenyan Jackanapes are trying to provoke a violent reaction from the "Right."
Call me a racist, I don’t f-ing care. I am tired of DemocRATS STEALING elections with rampant voter fraud. If this was not the basis for their electoral success, then why the wailing and gnashing of teeth coming from the left?
Where there is smoke, there is fire.
The national Democrats desperately want to abolish the electoral college because more states are adopting voter ID laws which put them out of business.
Voter fraud should be treason. PERIOD!
Yes, the vehement protest from the left make me extremely alarmed about what must have been happening all this time.
It could not be more obvious that the scum who want there to be NO VOTER ID, prefer instead vote fraud and illegal aliens voting
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