Voter ID laws going way of dodo bird
Lewis DiuguidIt has taken a while, but the “innovative” voter identification laws that have popped up in many states with Republican controlled legislatures are thankfully being struck down in court challenges.
The voter ID laws in the 21st century are as transparent as grandfather clauses, poll taxes and literacy tests imposed in the Jim Crow South to keep black voters from casting ballots in elections in the 20th century. Those voters are likely to cast ballots for Democrats. Blocking them at the polls, give Republican candidates an advantage.
A federal court ruled Thursday that the Texas law mandating that voters show photo IDs discriminates against low-income Latinos and African Americans. The ruling said the 2011 law imposes “strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor,” The Associated Press reported.
Such laws have been struck down in other states, and similar rulings are sure to come.
Brandon Lewis
8 months, 3 weeks agoThe Voting Rights Act of 1965 is being enforced.
I am proud to be an American and I support:
The Fifteenth Amendment (Amendment XV) to the United States Constitution.
Kevin Sheely
8 months, 3 weeks agoWe’ve only been talking about it for two years now. Two years that these alleged millions of disenfranchised voters could have got up off the couch and got themselves an ID. Truth is liberals are only opposed to this common-sense reform is because it will prevent them from cheating.
Mark Hastert
8 months, 3 weeks agoNo Kev, the truth is that the court has finally unveiled the Republican plot to steal rightful votes.
George Hunsucker
Northland
8 months, 3 weeks agoAnother example of Federal Courts, this time one in DC, overruling states’ rights to run elections in a manner that assures votes are by legal people.
the libs much prefer the acorns of the world register dogs and dead people then having free and honest elections.
We’ll see when it gets to the SCOTUS…..the big 0’s doj challenges color-blind laws and doesn’t pursue blatant Philadelphia voter intimidation by the Black Panters… what a “leader” we have in jimmy II!!
Doug Utley
8 months, 3 weeks agoSo this is to protect people that do not have a photo ID, right? Everything requires a photo ID of some sort these days. They don’t drive, have checking accounts, credit cards, own a cell phone, have gas/water service, go to the public library, attend school/college, or out buying beer or cigarettes?
you are kidding right?
Brandon Lewis
8 months, 3 weeks agoHow hard would it be to have a uniform voting system across these United States?
Let’s have all the states require the same ID for voting. Let’s use the same hours and early voting availability. Those voting absentee would have to follow the same procedures whether in the state of Maine or Arizona.
Steven Fetter
66223
8 months, 3 weeks agoHow should one prove that he/she is eligible to vote in a certain district? Should we just take a person’s word on it?
What if conservative christians from Kansas crashed the polls in Missouri to vote for Todd Akin? Would you support some sort of verification before recording their vote?
Mark Hastert
8 months, 3 weeks agoGee Brad, I didn’t know that civil rights was outdated. Nobody’s using the word racist except you. What the court ruled was that this law clearly infringes on the voting rights of the poor, most of whom are minorities. It places an undue burden on that class of voter. That was it’s intent all along. That along with the other measures to restrict voter registration early voting and extended voting hours were carefully crafted for maximum impact on those voters deemed most likely to vote Democratic. In that regard they have been likened to poll taxes and literacy tests of the past. They are a solution to a fabricated problem. While the Kris Kobachs worry about voter fraud they seem unconcerned about the greater likelihood of disenfranchisement on a larger number of voters. The court recognized that.
Phil Cardarella
8 months, 3 weeks agoI propose that every white male over the age of 30 and under the age of 65 be required to research and locate at least 100 cases where a person who is not elegible to vote has voted using the name and identity of a different person — the ONLY kind of “voter fraud” that these ID laws can relate to — and that those cases be revied and certified before he can be allowed to vote.
Surely, that can be no more difficult that asking a 75 year old woman in a nursing home in Indiana to locate and pay for a copy of her birth certificate somewhere in rural Kentucky and then take that certificate — along with two other pieces of identification that she may or may not have — to a DMV office in the next county open only during limited business hours and pay for a photo ID.
Just so she can vote this November just as she has in every election since she turned 21, over half a century ago!
Oh, wait! You mean requiring the TYPICAL GOP VOTER to do something he claims is no problem would be an imposition on his right to vote? And, that coming from a Yellow Dog Democrat like me such a proposal might seem partisan?
But, it is OK to deprive millions of our fellow citizens of their votes to protect against a NONEXISTENT threat?
Let’s put Kris Kobach on a polygraph, and see if he can pass on this issue.
Bill Travers
8 months, 3 weeks agoDoug U.,
Your comment “They don’t drive, have checking accounts, credit cards, own a cell phone, have gas/water service, go to the public library, attend school/college, or out buying beer or cigarettes?
you are kidding right?” shows you really need to look around the world outside of your little piece of suburbia. For a large percentage of the population, no, “they don’t drive” because they can’t afford a vehicle or gas; “checking accounts”, with what money?; “credit cards”, heck they might be lucky to have an account at a payday loan shark; how to pay for a cell phone with no job, no money; “gas/water service”, you would be surprised how many people get by without that after they were cut off; they don’t “go to the public library” because they “don’t go to school/ college” and they don’t read too well as a result; “buy beer or cigarettes”, if they have the money they may know a place that doesn’t card. So what do they need a photo ID for?
Reality bites for a bunch of folks, Doug. It’s called poverty, and it’s not race specific.
Phil Cardarella
8 months, 3 weeks agoMy point is that — unlike other things that require a photo ID — voting is a RIGHT. In fact, it is the most fundamental right of any citizen of a republic,
I even think that people who vote Republican should be able to vote. They just should be smarter in their choices.
Johnathon Busby
8 months, 3 weeks agoPhil’s point is that there are few instances of fraud, and that the efforts represent an attempt to “fix” a non-extant problem. But that aside, there are plenty of examples showing the GOP attempt to suppress the portions of the vote they don’t like. Everything from Turzai of Penn admitting their suppression efforts will win Willard his state, to the state (I forget which) where they extended voting hours in GOP leaning districts and shortened them for Dem districts.
George Hunsucker
Northland
8 months, 3 weeks agoWrong Johnathon…
phil specifically said “nonexistent threat”. Nonexistent means it does not exist in phil’s world….