Help America Vote Act . . . ? Who's helping Who?

[donco6]

Just got this message from my county clerk and recorder - Coloradoans are now required to provide identification at time of voting. Anyone else have this in their state?


>>HB 1356 was the implementing law for HAVA in Colorado. Also please see SB 102 regarding identification which will now be required at polling places on election day. ALL voters appearing at a polling place will be asked for ID - even those of us who have been voting in our counties for many years. If a voter cannot present ID his/her ballot will be treated as a provisional ballot and, if the county clerk can verify the voter's eligibility, that ballot will be counted after election day and included in the vote totals.

>>First time voters in any county (even moving from one county to another within Colorado) who register by "mail" and do not provide a Driver's License Number and at least the last 4 digits of their social security number at the time of registration will be required to provide that ID (a copy of driver's license, etc.) in their mail or absentee ballot. If a person registered to vote at a clerk's office or other voter registration official office and provided that ID at the time of registration, their will not have to include a copy of the ID with the mail or absentee ballot.>>

[Gordon25]

1. Something similar was tried in Arizona

The rightwingers in the Arizona legislature attached an ammendment to the HAVA implementation bill here, requiring two pieces of picture ID to presented at the polls on election day before you could vote. Our Democratic governor, elected in 2002, vetoed the bill, which did away with the id requirement, but also meant that the feds would not now be funding the equipment upgrades the federal HAVA requires. There are still equipment upgrades required of Arizona, to the tune of about 53 million bucks, which are now going to have to come out of the Arizona general fund.

This is also being tried in other states where the legislatures are in Republican control, much in the way there have been several such states introducing bills to cancel the presidential primaries in 2004 in order to save money. Bush has no primary opponent so the Republicans are not hurt by the cancellations. Democrats are being left to scramble to come up with private money to pay for a primary, or trying to resurrect old caucus techniques once used to choose the Democratic candidate; techniques which generate almost no press coverage compared with a full primary election. Again, Bush gets his press, the Dem candidates get little or nothing.

I suspect this stuff is aimed at hurting the Democrats financially and making voting increasingly difficult and burdensome in order to discourage turn out, because this always also hurts the Democratic candidates. These id things, especially here in AZ were pitched as a way to keep illegal aliens from voting (some Repubs actually claiming in the press that the Dems brought illegal aliens to the polls by the busload and that that explained how a Democratic governor got elected in a heavily Republican state) and so it plays into the xenophobia and jingoism so rampant on the right today.

Contact your state representatives and senators now to start the ball rolling to repeal these id requirements. Wouldn't hurt for a citizen who is a registered voter to bring suit seeking an injunction to keep this law from being applied until it is fully challenged in court.

You've heard of a can of worms? Well, what we are dealing with trying to preserve our democracy in the US today is a mile deep mineshaft full of poisonous snakes.

Gordon25

[grasswire]

2. it's aimed at....

....intimidating and hindering minority and low-income voters, IMO. Two pieces of ID? What do they think they are to be so impertinent? Bank of America??