There are those pundits and other who claim there is NO voter fraud to amount to anything, and we don't need voter ID verification laws. The second argument is that doing so places undue burdens on the poor and elderly. Let's look at these popular arguments one by one.
There is NO voter fraud that amounts to anything! The NC Board of Elections, which joined a consortium of 28 states in data sharing on voter registrations. The NC BOA published the report April of 2014. The report listed the following facts in the State of North Carolina
• 765 voters with an exact match of first and last names, dates of birth and last four of the SSN's registered in NC and another state and voted in the other state in the 2012 general election.
• 35,750 voters with the same first name and last name and date of birth were registered in the state of NC and another state voted in both states in the 2012 general election.
• 50,000 death records which were previously unreported to the NC State Board of Elections
• 13,416 deceased voters were on the voter rolls as of October 2013
• 81 deceased voters showed voter activity after the dates of their deaths.
This is only one state with 100,012 irregularities, and it is not the most populous state by any means. Just taking that times 50 (as an average) is 5,000,600 nationally (it is probably more). Take into account that Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck voted in Nevada, and you get the picture. Five million votes (probably more in the 10M range) could sway an election. This is NOT a “no account” issue.
Now, let’s talk about the second point. These laws are discriminatory and place an undue burden on the poor and elderly. Let’s look at some points:
• You needed a photo ID to get into the Democratic National Convention in 2012. Everyone who got in had one. I guess the Democrats don’t need and poor and elderly in their conventions, or they place such an undue burden to attend, the poor and elderly could not attend (even if they lived in the city the conventions was held and could have walked there! The Dems must speak “with forked tongues” so the saying goes.
• Many communities actually offered to send mobile units to accomplish the task of voter verification and ID issuance. Why would this be a burden? Can you not walk inside your house and get some type of ID that proves you are who you say you are? Don’t the poor and elderly ever go out of the house? Do they go to the grocery store? Do they go to churches? Do they attend football or other sports games?
• The poor have a hard time finding their paperwork! If you have that much of a hard time, maybe it is that you CAN’T produce the paperwork?
• You need a photo ID in many states to drive a car. So, the poor and elderly don’t drive? That’s a bunch of pure BUNK! Some may not, but they can produce some form of ID verification for sure. I’m sure they were BORN somewhere! If they were, they at least have a birth certificate.
• If you lose your driver’s license, you have to produce two different types of ID to get a new one. At least a birth certificate and a tax return or passport.
This is just a few of the flimsy excuses politicians and others site in the push to either prevent voter verification laws or any effort to confirm a voter’s valid ID. If you cannot produce a document showing you are who you say you are, then maybe you should NOT be allowed to vote, or as we have seen from the first example, you cannot vote in two places or if you are already dead! Voter ID laws make sense and keep the system more sacrosanct.
I think that there are good and bad ways to go about doing such things. Bad way: Make it an immediate mandate timed to coincide with a vote/election Good way: Have it roll out over several election cycles, with those without ID getting it provided to them (if need be) well in advance. People should be asked for ID now and if they don't have it the response should be, "that is fine, but just so you know in 2018 it will be mandatory. Here is the number to call to get your voter ID card, should you need it....etc." I think intentions have a lot to do with people being upset over the law. Nobody actually believes that republicans care so passionately about this because they think the fraud is rampant. It's because it's to their benefit. Conversely, I don't think that Dems are adamantly opposed because they care about the rights of minorities and the young, it's because these laws are to their disadvantage. It's like hearing two people screaming "this is wrong" but knowing that what they're really screaming is, "this is bad for my power-hungry nature." I'd also like to see the GOP and the DEM's put effort towards getting these disenfranchised voters more educated. If state politicians put as much work, care and passion in to the needs of the poor and uneducated as they do in to ensuring they do/do not have a voter ID card, well... that would be a good thing, don't you think?
Man, I can certainly agree with educating the electorate! People on all sides of the political spectrum are too ignorant of the issues, tend to read only the "talking points" that they tend to agree with, and vote with those "talking points". Many times the talking points are a bunch of bunk, spin the truth into a lie (because if it isn't the whole truth, it is a lie!), and leave many in the electorate uneducated on the issues. This was a warning from many of the founders and framers, and it is overly evident today. On the timing issue, that is a great suggestion. It is too bad we haven't been able to begin the process becasue of the very ignoarance you alude to above, and because of the divisive "race baiters" who cry wolf and file bogus law suits based on unsubstantiated "facts". Also, because too many, in our currrent judiciary, tend to interpret the constitution to make it fit the proposal or law they want instead of interpreting the law in light of what the constitution plainly says. If we had done the process more two years ago, it would have been done by now for the most part. If they care so much about the disenfranchised (whatever that overused cliche means), then why don't they spend much of their efforts overhauling the "broken" welfare system and structure so they don't trap, generationally, the very people they say they care about. The Pubs care about those folks too buddy, it is not the exclusive of the Dems (who have stuctured the system to build in their own voting block to a degree). To say the Pubs don't care is a false, overused, "talking point" in itself. By the young, do you mean the one's who can't get a photo ID but who probably own a cell phone (or are given one by the government who is us taxpayers), chat on Twitter and Facebook, and can email and use social media better than many - those young people?
As for education, I didn't mean that we need to educate the electorate in the sense that they need to be better informed about politics. I mean that we need to better educate our children from birth so that they become high functioning and informed humans -whether they vote or not. -- HOW IS IT SO DAMN HARD TO IMPROVE EDUCATION IN THE US -ESPECIALLY IN INNER-CITIES? -It is literally shameful. It's all theater and I find it hard to believe that anyone could feel such a strong allegiance to either party.The Pubs care about those folks too buddy, it is not the exclusive of the Dems
-Show me where I said otherwise. To say the Pubs don't care is a false, overused, "talking point" in itself.
-I'm saying neither side cares. Period. They care about holding on to their positions long enough to leverage those positions for financial gain.
I wasn't saying YOU per se, I am speaking of exactly what you say, "It is a false, overused "talking point" in itself. This makes my point exactly. However, what do we hear as a drumbeat consistently and constantly from certain sectors of the political spectrum - huh? Now, to talk about our "broken", federally mandated, educational system, that is a whole other topic. We can discuss that in another thread for sure. The fact remains, for the most part, our electorate is "ignorant" of the substance of most issues: local, state, and federal. It is a shame. It probably takes no more than an hour and a half per week to do some digging in a point of interest to get at some substance. And what about our "inner cities"; those citadels of government sponsored poverty, entrapment economic slavery, and poorly designed "welfare" (what a misnomer!) programs that leave an average of 50% of all ethnic groups in higher poverty, single parent households, more crime, higher STD rates, and lower high school dropout rates, etc. These have been the well-intended but ill devised programs of the "progressive movement". I don't call it "progressive", but I call it regressive. It caters to the basest of our natures and caters to mediocrity and lack of personal motivation. I think we ought to offer more of help, in the form of scholarships to the poorest, to attend the school of their choosing. I believe the Department of Education needs to be reduced in size and scope and become nothing more than a clearing house for great educational ideas on the local and state level (and it would reduce bloated bureaucracy to boot). What we have from Washington is government mandated curriculums, mindsets, and control. Take NC HB 1075 which seeks to overturn the NC Opportunity Scholarships, which are overwhelmingly popular with the poorest of the intended recipients, and deny any choice and trap the poor in failing schools just to protect the "power structure" of the establishment and uncaring teachers union "bosses" (not the regular working teachers). They just want money and power. Look at New York City and the unpopular "outlawing" of charter schools by the "progressive" mayor. Much of the poor that got the advantage of the schools are "pissed off" at their city government; talk about catering to the power brokers - yikes! Let's talk about this some more in another thread. However, to recap, there IS widespread voter fraud, and we need to keep the process as clean and unfettered as we can. Many, not all, of our ancestors had a personal "moral" code which kept them from such fraud as a general rule (we can always find the exceptions and try to make them the rule as is quite common in today's culture).