Editorial: Voter ID law
A failed fix to a bad bill
Gov. Bob McDonnell’s amendments to voter identification legislation are proving to be an aggravation before the measure becomes law.
Gov. Bob McDonnell cannot control his urge to try to fix every dumb and defective bill adopted by legislators. But some of the 130 measures he amended this spring are beyond repair and should instead have been dispatched with a stroke of his veto pen.
Take the unwarranted and shamelessly punitive legislation (H.B. 9 and S.B. 1) that threatens to disqualify thousands of legitimate votes cast by people who fail to bring identification to the polls.
April 18, 2012 - 6:22 AM
Carpal Tunnel has definitely changed my signature from the day in 1976 when I registered to vote. Or the form I signed in 1980 when I changed it to my married name. This game is getting tiresome and people see right through it. Virginia, like every other state, has no proven “voter fraud” issues. This is all smoke and mirrors to disenfranchise what they see as Democratic votes. No one is being fooled except those who believe every right wing lie ever told.
With all of the controversy about Voter ID`s, if you can`t remember to bring your ID to the polls, you probably forgot to put on clothes before you left your house. This nothing more than an despicable attempt by the left to create voter fraud…When the `President` has created an economic nightmare, the left has to find a way to get votes ! Can`t get out to get an ID ? Have the person who will be taking you to the polls give you a lift !! Put your clothes on before you go to vote…your ID is probably in your back pocket.
#1 – “Virginia, like every other state, has no proven “voter fraud” issues.”
Not true:
http://www.roanoke.com/politics/fraud/wb/102600
As far as other states? Here ya go:
http://www.rnla.org/votefraud.asp
Michael, what is it with you and fraud that has nothing to do with voter ID being shown? Every time this comes up, you throw up links that NOTHING about showing ID will fix. Do you not get the connection or do you think others won’t? Even if I ignore the gist of the lack of relevancy, the list of THREE vote fraud “cases” in Virginia justifies the disenfranchisement of thousands? How is that exactly?
Jeff Doto, I cannot believe that the TPGOP can still have the nerve to talk about anyone devastating the economy after the Bush/Cheney debacle this nation suffered. That seems really a strange form of political amnesia to me. McCain/Palin would have had the same disastrous economy and had no more luck in fixing it as the Ryan Plan is only more of Bush without what little compassion there was in him. I see nothing that says the TPGOP does not want to destroy this nation so they can “rebuild” it in the right wing image Plutocracy they like. That you think this nation, so recently and brutally plundered by Wall Street should consider, much less elect Wall Street Corporate Raider Willard Romney is an insult beyond insults IMO.
Obama is far from perfect, but he is light years ahead of the Wall Street King who wants to ruin this nation.
Your comment was wrong, Sandi, and I simply provided a link proving it.
I want honest elections, and want to see everything done to ensure they happen.
As much as you and others fight voter ID, it’s seems that you do not.
The effort to make obtaining an ID as easy a possible (such as offering one for free, coming to your house to issue one, etc.), along with the need for an ID in everyday life, makes the argument that it disenfranchises voters complete hogwash.
#3 Please provide evidence of fraud in Virginia that a voter ID would have prevented, Michael.
I have to agree with the general points raised by Jeff and Michael. There are plenty of steps being taken, and that have been taken, to make available forms of identification that are not cost-prohibitive. I don’t see the requirement of having/showing a photo id to be akin to poll taxes and other means used to disenfranchise voters in the past. I likewise want to see honest elections. Given how much corruption exists in politics, if elections can at least be reasonably secured from some forms of fradulent activity, it’s a good thing to do. I do agree with Sandi and the editorial…the signature analysis thing sounds like awful policy. I know mine is a lot different from when I got my driver’s license…and sometimes it looks different from moment to moment in subtle, but noticeable ways. Current day hanging chad issue, anyone?
I thought about all the various times that I’ve had to provide a photo id in the past say 5 years. We needed it to rent a house, to buy our house (for the credit check and closing), to buy a car, to drive a car, to pay at the store( and other places) with a check, to open a new bank account, apply for a credit card, to pay with a credit card (yes, I did get my id checked a couple of times), to buy a cell phone, to apply for and get 2 different jobs, to apply for my CHP, and I’m sure there’s more that I’m forgetting about.
But my point is that it’s awful darn difficult to live in current society without a photo id of some kind, unless you’re living in someone else’s home, not driving, not working, not doing any form of banking, buying only with cash (but not earned from an actual job), etc, etc. I’m sure there are some folks who have managed to go through their lives not ever needing or using a photo id, but they are the rare exceptions. And for those rare exceptions, every voter id law I’ve read about has quite a number of provisions written into the language to make the process about as easy as possible to get one.
If this was pre 9/11 I would agree with you Other John. After the terrorists were found to have gotten Virginia DMV licenses the process for getting even a photo ID in Virginia was changed and for someone who is disabled, elderly, transient or just plain not good at paperwork, the process of getting a DMV Photo ID is a lot harder than you think.
You are thinking of yourself, as most people do, you have a valid driver’s license you can whip out in an instant. Have had one for years and think nothing of it. Think of yourself as 90 or disabled and then look at it. Plenty of older people have either never driven or have surrendered that license. Plenty of urban folks have no car. Plenty of disabled people have no job, live with someone or don’t have a bank account. Even “food stamps, unemployment and tax refunds can come in the form of a “credit card” now and no, the Social Services office does not have the DMV requirements. And, not for nothing, but I ran into an old friend who had been ill and I almost did not recognize her and I can guarantee you her Driver’s License looks like a different woman.
There is simply not the level of voter fraud and certainly none where people voted for someone else that warrants this kind of burden on those least able to get an ID and therefore give up on voting, which is the intent or they would indeed offer a free photo ID with acceptable docs, affidavits etc provided for identity purposes. I will not support the initiative until they do.
I have a daughter who has never had a driver’s license and two aunts who haven’t either. The 90 year old does not even have a birth certificate. You all expect her to jump through your hoops to vote when she has done NOTHING wrong and has every right to vote and I think that is wrong.
http://www.dmv.state.va.us/webdoc/pdf/dmv141.pdf
I want honest elections too, first I want you to prove we don’t have them. This is a solution in search of a problem.
http://www.aclu.org/infographic-facts-about-voter-suppression
The really odd thing is that nothing Michael has ever presented as “voter fraud” is fixed by demanding a photo ID, and he has demanded no changes (or even suggested any) that would fix the “voter fraud” he has offered into evidence. Is that really not telling you all anything?
#6 – How about this, gdad…you provide me with proof that voter fraud does NOT exist?
The link I provided about proves it does.
To use the old, tired logic of the Left, if you are against doing everything possible to ensure fair and honest elections, then you must be for voter fraud.
#9 – Without knowing all of the facts involved in the numerous instances of voting fraud that I provided, it’s impossible to knwo if providing an ID would have prevented any of them.
Nonetheless, requiring an ID to vote does nothing but ensure that a vote is being cast by the person who is legally eligible to cast that vote, and is a positive step TOWARDS an honest election.
On the flipside, not requiring an ID opens up the possibility that the vote being cast is being done so by someone other then the person who is eligible to cast that vote, and is a step BACKWARDS from an honest election.
Based on the posts meade in this and previous threads concerning voter ID, it’s quite apparent who is against (or afraid?) of honest elections being held. Trying to convince them otherwise is akin to the old adage about teaching a pig to sing.
I’m done…y’all have a nice day.
All I know is that the Ninth Circut let Arizona’s Voter Id law stand..
Thats good news for the rest of the country…
3 – those are interesting links, Michael, and thank you for posting them, but you might help your case if you offered a few links from CPUSA/Dem Party-friendly sources:
http://www.politicususa.com/republican-voter-fraud/
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29577.htm
http://www.democrats.com/node/53
It’s a matter of knowing your audience.
I know this is a hard concept for folks who believe the Constitution and laws only apply as they want them to, but the truth of voter disenfranchisement is a literal, real and awful part of the American story. Asking us to prove a negative means that your audience is wearing blinders too tight to be penetrated.
Your solution looking for a problem will cause eligible voters not to exercise a very important part of our political system. The “right to vote” is held sacred and should be the hardest of all rights in this nation to infringe. It even went without saying in the actual Constitution because it was such a God given in a newly minted Republic with established representation for all at its core. Most of the older people I know vote very conservatively. None, I know voted for Obama and none will this time either.
I am sorry that simple minds have to believe this is about anything more than protecting the precious ability to vote in our democratic process. In my opinion, the motives for this effort, speak for themselves and no, neither candidate/side is likely to “need” those votes, but it is a damnable shame in a nation that goes all over the freaking world supposedly “insuring” fair and free elections with nothing more than a purple finger, to be at such a state of disenfranchising voters on purpose.
It shames me when anyone holds only their rights as sacred. I will never take part in it.
Sandi writes, “This game is getting tiresome and people see right through it.” Sandi, how are the people “seeing thru it?” Even 52% of the Democrats support it.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/75300.html
It is asinine not to require ID to vote. This should not even be an issue.
Got any polls from the Jim Crow era? I am fairly certain lots of people supported that too. It does not change my position when “the majority” does not agree with me. Maybe not enough people see through it now, but they will, they always do, eventually. It will just have to happen in their neck of the woods first.
The proof is in what I said in #9 above. If “voter fraud” was the real crux of the matter, what has been offered to fix the examples that have been thrown up here in links, time after time? What? Show me? Photo ID is not a panacea and it is not infallible, AND it does not fix where true voter fraud lies. But it certainly has the potential to harm people and make it harder for them to vote, and so they won’t. Hell, it’s just one day, just one vote. One vote doesn’t matter. That is not the American way IMO.
I don’t know why I am surprised. Expecting a nation that cuts food stamps to keep tax cuts, to care if people do not get to vote is pretty silly.
#15 – OMG!!! PHIL!!! That’s a Fox News poll!!! That alone means it’s total garbage!
Surely you should know that unless it’s from Huffpo, MSNBC, Media Matters, etc, that it’s not a legitimate news source.
Get with the program!!
I agree JimW, “It is asinine not to require ID to vote. This should not even be an issue.” I am not sure who is trying to say that people should not have some form of ID, but I am in total agreement that it is “asinine” and purple fingers is not a solution either.