American Enterprise Institute ^ | 11/08/2016 | Mark J. Perry
Posted on 11/9/2016, 5:56:07 AM by cll
With permission, I am sharing an email below that I received from an American friend who recently moved to Puerto Rico and participated in his first election there today:Relating to the discussion about voter ID laws on a recent CD post featuring a video by filmmaker Ami Horowitz that investigated the commonly held belief by liberals in America that voter ID laws are racist and discriminate against the poor and uneducated, let me describe my first experience voting in a Puerto Rican election today.
First, you have to obtain a voter ID card before you are allowed to vote in Puerto Rico. The voter ID is a laminated photo ID with holograms and a bar code. It is a completely separate ID from your driver’s license. To get a voter ID, you go to a voter registration office with your birth certificate and another photo ID or your passport, as well as proof of being a Puerto Rican resident (e.g. a lease, property deed, or maybe a utility bill). The voter registration office is staffed by three people, one from each of the three major political parties so that all can watch one another.
Once you have your voter ID card, you can legally vote at your designated voting place. Before voting, they inspect your voter ID card, check the holograms under a black-light to verify it’s legal, and they scan the bar code. Then they scan your hands with a black-light to make sure you haven’t already voted (see below), and then you go in to the voting area to get your ballot. Before you get a ballot though, they first find your name on a list of registered voters. On the list, your name has your picture next to it, and they match this photo with the photo on your voter ID card. Then they then dip your finger in black-light visible dye (hence the earlier black-light scan) and only then do they hand you your voting ballot. The voting process in Puerto Rico is much more stringent than anything even proposed in the US, and is also effective at pretty much eliminating voter fraud.
So, if there were any real truth to the narrative that “voter ID laws harm vulnerable groups like the poor, the uneducated, and minorities” you’d think you would see it here in Puerto Rico with all these time-consuming procedures to first obtain a voter ID and then be thoroughly checked each time before voting. The median household income of $18,626 in Puerto Rico was about 67% below the US median household income of nearly $56,000 in 2015 (Census data here, see chart above). The high school graduation rate in Puerto Rico is 60% (compared to 83.2% in the US) and only about 18.3% of residents have a post-secondary college degree (compared to 42% in the US). And yet Puerto Rico has the highest voter turnout in the Americas. From 1972 through 1984, island turnout exceeded 80% of the voting-age population, and at one point more than 95% were registered. Between 1972 and 2000, Puerto Rico averaged 79% turnout in its national elections; only eleven US states had voter turnouts higher than 60% during that time, while 14 were below 50%. In 2012, voter turnout in the US was only 53.6%.
I have yet to meet anyone in Puerto Rico who thinks that the voter registration rules here are a bad idea or an undue burden. In contrast, there seems be to universal agreement among Puerto Ricans that the process is well worth the extra trouble and time to ensure fair elections.
One can only conclude that: a) those opposing voter ID laws are subtly racist/classist/elitist toward those they (incorrectly) view to be inferior and without the means and wherewithal to get a voter ID (see Ami Horowitz’s video), or b) the issue is just a smokescreen and those who oppose stricter voter ID laws really ultimately want to facilitate voter fraud and voting by non-citizens because they believe it benefits them politically in terms of obtaining and retaining power.
PR gets it right!
Here is the reason why we dont have it. White libs looking down on blacks!