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Posted on 10/05/2011 12:54:18 PM PDT by ilovesarah2012
Dorothy Cooper is 96 but she can remember only one election when she's been eligible to vote but hasn't.
The retired domestic worker was born in a small North Georgia town before women had the right to vote. She began casting ballots in her 20s after moving to Chattanooga for work. She missed voting for John F. Kennedy in 1960 because a move to Nashville prevented her from registering in time.
So when she learned last month at a community meeting that under a new state law she'd need a photo ID to vote next year, she talked with a volunteer about how to get to a state Driver Service Center to get her free ID. But when she got there Monday with an envelope full of documents, a clerk denied her request.
That morning, Cooper slipped a rent receipt, a copy of her lease, her voter registration card and her birth certificate into a Manila envelope. Typewritten on the birth certificate was her maiden name, Dorothy Alexander.
"But I didn't have my marriage certificate," Cooper said Tuesday afternoon, and that was the reason the clerk said she was denied a free voter ID at the Cherokee Boulevard Driver Service Center.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesfreepress.com ...
The marriage certificate is only one of many acceptable primary identification documents. It’s hard to believe she doesn’t have a birth certificate and if she doesn’t, she can order one. Since she’s receiving multiple federal benefits, it’s difficult to understand how she is getting by without an ID in the first place.
According to the Tennessee Secretary of State, absentee voters are exempt from the photo ID requirements. Here are the absentee ballot requirements:
1. Name of the registered voter
2. Address of the voter’s residence
3. Voter’s social security number
4. Voter’s date of birth
5. Address to mail the ballot outside the county (this applies only when the reason for voting by mail involves that the voter will be outside of the county during early voting and on election day)
6. The election the voter wishes to participate in. If the election involves a primary, the political party in which the voter wishes to participate
7. Reason the voter wishes to vote absentee
8. Voter’s signature
One of the acceptable reasons to vote absentee is being 65 years of age or older. If the voter is not on a the permanent absentee voting list, then the first vote has to be in person.
Absentee ballots don't require photo ID, and the new state law was crafted to allow that exception.
MAJOR loophole. Watch those ballots geometrically increase.
That stipulation has always puzzled me. There is only ONE original birth certificate.
Everything else is a copy of that, generally notarized that it is a true and accurate copy.
What actually constitutes an "original"?
In New Jersey we now need six "points" of ID to renew the licenses. Four point documents for U.S. citizens are birth certificate (original or certified copy), passport or passport card, current digital DL or non-driver ID card, active duty military ID card, adoption papers, and certificate of naturalization or of citizenship.
Other documents are worth 3, 2 or 1 points. You must present at least one primary (4 point) document and at least one other (secondary, 3, 2 or 1 points), a verifiable social security number and proof of address.
Non-citizens have a different list of requirements, but it appears as strict as the citizen requirements.
Embossed certificate issued by the state constitutes ‘original’. I got 5 from my State when I needed to provide one and what I had didn’t qualify. Figured I was saving future costs.
Thanks for the clarification.
There are new rules for Florida driver license and ID card renewals as of July 1, 2010. Here’s a link to the requirements: http://www.dmvflorida.org/drivers-license-identification.shtml
But for those who can’t or don’t want to check the link, generally U.S. citizens have to show an original or certified copy of a birth certificate, a social security card, and two current proofs of residence. There are alternative documents accepted for some of this, but people born in the U.S. have to show a birth certificate or a valid U.S. passport. Naturalized citizens and citizens born abroad have to show other U.S. government documents.
Non-citizen immigrants have to show proof that they are legally here, such as a green card or employment authorization, as well as proof of social security number and two proofs of residence.
Persons who have had any name change(s) have to show a chain of original or certified copies of marriage licenses or court orders that track all changes from the name on the birth certificate to the current name.
I had to renew my license last fall, and they were dead serious about the requirements, turning away everyone who didn’t have all the necessary documents.
There is one benefit to this hassle: Florida law requires a valid photo I.D. to vote.
She must be quite healthy too...since if she EVER had to go to doctor, she’d need ID.
...and quite rich too, since you need ID to cash a Social Security check...or apply for Social Security.
One can only hope to be as lucky as her at age 96.
I can’t pick up any of my kids from their school for a doctor’s appointment ,without a state issued ID, but it’s too much of a burden to get one to vote?
renewed my FL driver license in Jan 2011 by
mail-—all that was required was $48
Yes - the document requirements apply to in-person renewals only. Since you get to renew your license by mail every other renewal period, at your next renewal you will have to go to the DMV in person and jump through all the documentation hoops. So, it will be a long time before all Florida DL and ID cards meet the new documentation requirements, which were imposed to conform to the federal REAL ID act.
However, you still may not have to jump through all the hoops: there is legislation proposed for the 2012 Florida legislative session to discontinue complying with several provisions of the REAL ID act. See http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=47159&SessionId=70 and http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2012/0220
I hope this passes. This proposed legislation would specifically prohibit electronic tracking and collecting or storing biometric information. It would also limit the documentation that the DMV can require for license renewals, reinstatements, and modifications. The legislation does not address database sharing. It would prevent the DMV from copying identification documents and require the DMV to destroy any copies it already possesses. Requiring people to prove who they are and where they live to GET a license or ID is necessary. Otherwise the license or ID is pretty meaningless. But electronic tracking and biometric data recording are tools for control of the citizenry.
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