NYT/Reuters: U.S. Senate Democrats Decry Voter Photo ID Bill

[DeepModem Mom]

U.S. Senate Democrats Decry Voter Photo ID Bill
By REUTERS
Published: September 22, 2006

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats on Friday said legislation that would require voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections was little more than a poll tax and urged Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to stop the bill.

The measure, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last week largely along party lines, would require voters to present at the polls a photo identification that also proves citizenship for federal elections beginning in 2010....

***

Democrats said there is no evidence of widespread abuse and that the cost and effort required to get such a document would discourage poor voters, the elderly and people with disabilities.

"Worst of all, this bill recalls a dark era in our nation when individuals were required to pay a poll tax to cast their ballot and has been termed a 21st century poll tax,'' Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and three other Democrats wrote in a letter to Frist, a Tennessee Republican.

Democrats said the only identification that would meet that requirement is a passport, which costs $97 to obtain. Only about 25 percent of Americans have passports....

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-usa-immigration-elections.html

[texpatriot2004]

1. The only thing an American should need to vote in America is a

voter registration card. Period!

[filer]

2. Without proof of citizenship,

one might vote Democratic. Can't have that.

[jody]

3. I support photo voter ID as long as it is free as the Carter/Baker report

recommended.

[roseBudd]

4. Even if it's free it's not equal, people who drive do nothing and drive to

the polls to vote. People who don't drive, the majority of whom have too little income to aquire a car and all the financial obligations that entails, will have to jump through hoops to do something (vote) that they are already relative to other income groups disinclined to do beacuse they precieve (rightly) that

A. Their votes often do not count and

B. Politicians don't give a flying fuck about their low income concerns so why bother

So unless you are in favor of car drivers voting and noncardrivers, not so much, what do you think this will accomplish?

Hint, they voted along party lines.

[jody]

5. One can always create a worst case scenario where a few voters

have problems acquiring a voter ID.

IMO we should require voters to present proof that they are legally authorized to vote before they are allowed to vote and I assume you agree.

I'm sure you disagree with me and that's OK. That's why I'm a Democrat, the party of disagreement and disorganization.

Given that less than half of the potential voters actually vote, the current argument over voter ID is a minor problem overwhelmed by potential voter ignorance and apathy.

[roseBudd]

6. If a person knows the actual social security number and birthdate

and address of the person they claim to be AND they sign a poll book with a signature that resembles the signature on file that is not proof? Social, birthdate and mother's maiden is good enough for my bank when I call customer service.

Do you really think there are hordes of people memorizing, socials, birthdates and addresses and practicing forging signatures of people they aren't? Maybe they can write the numbers on their palm and take a peek when the poll worker isn't looking.

Voter fraud is not how elections are being stolen. Suppression, ballot tampering and tabulation fraud are.

[jody]

7. What process do you propose to insure the source signature was that

of a person authorized to vote?

How do you propose to provide those confirmed signatures to each voting site and guarantee that such copies of source signatures are valid?

[roseBudd]

8. Ficticous people do not have SSs and bithdates, if someone has my SS

and my birthdate, and has a larcenous heart they are not going to spend their time adding 1 vote to a candidate's tally. They are going to use my SS and BD for identity theft that pays off.

THERE IS NO EPIDEMIC OF VOTER FRAUD!

No one is trying to get to my polling location before me, where the elderly poll workers know me by name and pass themselves off as me so they can add 1 vote to the column of a Republican(s).

[jody]

10. Are you unable to answer my two simple questions in #5 above? n/a

[jody]

12. Mea culpa, rosebud57, my #10 post should have said #7 not #5.

:hi:

[Ignacio Upton]

9. Does Reid have the votes to filibuster this?

n/t.

[jpak]

11. There will be chaos if those w/o passports apply just before the 2010

election.

Does the govt. have the ability to process tens of millions of passports on short notice??

Lots of voters will get burned...

[pinkpops]

13. Funny thing is, lots of people have pictures that don't look like

them. And of course, how do you really PROVE you are a citizen to somebody across the table at a voting place? What if they don't believe you. What if they say you don't look like the person in the picture?