Posted on 09/30/2003 1:23:14 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Illegal aliens who soon will be able to obtain legal driver's licenses in California may also be able to vote in federal elections under terms of a new law set to take effect in January, analysts say.
Under the requirements of the "Help America Vote Act," passed in the wake of the 2000 presidential election recount debacle, states are now required to implement new standardized voting regulations, which include verifying voter identity, according to an analysis of the law by Public Citizen, a national non-partisan consumer-advocacy group.
One way the new law allows voters to be identified is via a driver's license, according to a Federal Election Commission summary of the law. If illegal aliens legally possess one, analysts speculate, they could also be allowed to cast ballots in U.S. elections.
For the first time, the law which was signed by President Bush Oct. 29 creates national voting and election standards "for the administration of all federal, state and local elections," the group said. Included in those standards are identification procedures.
One, dubbed a "ballot security measure," says all who register to vote "must provide a valid driver's license or the last four digits of your Social Security number," Public Citizen said in its analysis.
"In many ways, the new law marks a significant step forward in improving the conduct of elections in the United States," Public Citizen said. "At the same time, however, the compromise sacrificed some additional steps that should have been taken to ensure that every vote counts and contains some of the ballot-security measures that are not useful to the democratic process."
As WorldNetDaily reported, California recently passed legislation allowing illegal aliens to obtain driver's licenses. Also, though they don't specifically permit it, 15 other states' licensing laws contain enough loopholes non-citizens can also obtain driver's licenses there, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group advocating tighter immigration restrictions.
"This may be an unintended consequence of the law," said Karen England of the Capitol Resources Institute, a conservative public-policy think tank in Sacramento.
One official with the FEC said "some safeguards" were in place to prevent illegals from voting in U.S. elections. But she admitted they may not be foolproof.
The Office of Elections Administration official, who asked not to be named, told WorldNetDaily her agency was examining the implications California law would have on elections, but that research wasn't yet complete.
"There's a way to alert people who are not citizens not to register to vote," the official said. "So there are some safeguards. Whether it's 100 percent accurate, I have no idea."
Immigrant-rights groups support licensing illegal aliens.
"We agree there is a serious immigration problem in this country. We've got a situation where our immigration laws really don't work," says Michele Waslin, senior immigration policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza. But, she added, "we believe everybody who drives a car should have a driver's license. It's better for all of us if all drivers are properly licensed and insured. It makes us all safer."
Opponents of the California law, which takes effect Jan. 1, are mounting a challenge to it. The Imperial Valley Press reports U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., is lending assistance to a statewide referendum to overturn the law.
Supporters of the proposition must get 366,000 signatures certified before the first of the year to delay implementation of the law until the November election.
The paper cited a field poll reported by the San Jose Mercury News stating 59 percent of Californians oppose licensing illegals, compared with 34 percent who support it.
Other states are considering allowing illegals to obtain driver's licenses, following Democrat Gov. Gray Davis' signing of California's legislation Sept. 5.
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, also a Democrat, said earlier this month she too would sign a similar bill if one reached her desk, a position that put her at odds with leading Republicans in the state.
Luis Gonzalez said exactly what was posted on the response, what you should be doing is trying to rein in the State legislators, they are the ones that passed the bad law issuing legal documents to illegal aliens.
"Now should illegals be given such proof?" (California legislators=bad idea)
How about immediate deportation without a hearing - it's cheaper.
One might think that since Mexico is doing well, there would be little real need for so many of its citizens to emigrate to greener pastures. However, the Core plan is to bleed off the restless youth from Gap countries and move them to Core countries to avoid disruption in Gap countries, to keep the peace. True, Mexico is not a Gap country now, but would it still be not a Gap country if all those emigres were sent home?
It is entirely possible that Mexico would become Gap and immediately slide into revolution and civil war. If this happened, the US would be affected and fighting could spread into the US.
It's possible that this is the thinking. And maybe we actually do like the Mexicans.
Actually, unless things have changed it is not that hard to get a SSN. All you need is a US birth certificate.
And all you have to do to get a US birth certificate is go to a county recorders office and ask for the birth certificate of a child that died shortly after birth (and therefore was never issued a SSN) who would be about your age.
The requirements to get a SSN may have changed so I may be wrong but this is the way it was twenty years ago.
Of course today Children are issued SSNs at birth so our government has made it even easier, all the illegals will have to do in the future is request a replacement card.
Try and find them! Most of them have false documents with ten different names so they can't be traced. CA doesn't require any ID to be able to vote anyway. There's a book, and if your name is in it because you're registered, you can vote. The registration card asks if you're a citizen, but this is never checked out. All they have to do is check "yes", and bingo, they're registered voters who can vote for all the liberal causes, and in this day and age, "compassionate conservative" causes (same thing).
yeah yeah .. whatever
The fact that we need to get after our state legislators, too doesn't let Bush off the hook for his inability to do anything meaningful to prevent future vote fraud on a national level.
Bush is supposedly the President and ultimately accountable for what he puts his signature to. What's he think his power of Presidential veto is for?
Has he ever vetoed anything?
That's neither his job, nor is he constitutionally empowered to sign such a law. Read the U.S. Constitution once in a while, the States are charged with the "time, place, and manner" of holding elections. So, once again, if there are in fact illegal immigrants voting in elections, all fault lies squarely on the shoulder of the State, County, or District officials.
Your problem is that you want to find a dark cloud behind every silver lining when it comes to Bush, its so transparent.
Bush just put into place a law that, used correctly, and if idiot legislators at the State level quit legitimizing illegal aliens, would reduce the chances of voter fraud. Its a good law in spite of all your braying.
What's he think his power of Presidential veto is for?
So, what you are saying is that Bush should have vetoed a law which requires people to prove their identity before voting?
And you think that would be a good thing?
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Secondly, and most importantly, it doesn't "prove" anyone's citizenship!!! Maybe you haven't been in the country long enough to know that only CITIZENS are allowed to vote in U.S. elections.
This seems to be a foreign concept to both you and your buddy Bush.
How is this a bad thing? California has been without madatory IDing of voters for years.
That illegals can use drivers licenses to vote is a separate issue - they shouldn't have licenses, period - but requiring ID is a step in the right direction.
If these Bushbots are so easily conned into believing that "proving" identity is the same as "proving" citizenship, for the purposes of voting, how challenging could it be to debate them?
What could there possibly be to fear from these poor, gullible, RINO dupes?
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