QUICK - DU THIS LOU DOBBS POLL - r/e VOTER ID

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

Do you believe it's discriminatory to require all voters to offer proof of citizenship to register and vote?

Yes 5% 66 votes

No 95% 1143 votes


http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/

[peacebird]

1. requiring proof of id isn't wrong IF the state gives id's FREE to all

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

9. Dan Tokaj calls it the Hyde Vote Suppression Bill

From Dan Tokaj's blog at Moritz Law

House to Consider Hyde Vote Suppression Bill

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to debate a bill that would have a devastating impact upon the right to vote. The Hill has this report on H.R. 4844, sponsored by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) and euphemistically labelled the "Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006." The bill was approved by the House Administration Committee on a party line vote. The text of the bill may be found here and my prior thoughts on the bill are here.

While I try to use such forceful terms as "vote suppression" with great care, there is no other way to describe a bill that would prevent people from registering or voting unless they present documents that many do not have. In order to register, voters would be required to produce proof of U.S. citizenship, notwithstanding the fact that there is no single document that proves citizenship. Voters would also be required to produce "current and valid photo identification," something that many people also don't have. In Wisconsin, for example, only 22% of black males between 18- 24 had a driver's license.

Perhaps most disturbing is the utter lack of evidence that proponents have produced to show that the bill is needed. At the hearing on the bill that I attended back in June, the most that proponents could assert is that 35 foreign nationals attempted to register -- some of them people who had applied for, but not yet obtained, American citizenship -- in Harris County, Texas, a jurisdiction with some 1.9 million voters. This amounts to one ineligible voter registered for every 54,285 eligible voters. By contrast, the available evidence suggests that about 6-10% of voters lack photo ID, and that a disproportionate number of them are elderly, disabled, minority, and poor people.

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/blogs/tokaji/2006/09/house-to-consider-hyde-vote.html

[NorCalDem]

10. "and that a disproportionate number of them are elderly,

disable, minority, and poor people." You forgot to mention that they're also Democratic voters. Just making sure we're all aware of that...

[hedda_foil]

2. Done!

[dave502d]

3. Why do we need proof of citizenship?

When i go to vote they have my name on a list.

[EFerrari]

6. So they can suppress votes for Democrats. Make it hard enough

poor people won't vote.

[Sparkly]

4. Seems badly worded....

Don't we prove citizenship when we register to vote, and isn't the question whether photo IDs need to be displayed at the voting locations?

I may be wrong... :dunce:

[karlrschneider]

7. Yeah, it wasn't clear to me either. I don't have a problem proving

citizenship but not sure about showing an ID at the polls. I have never been asked to show one, just what's my name and sign the book so they know I voted. Nor can I recall ever being asked to when registering but it's possible I was and didn't remember.

[wakeme2008]

5. Poll is no longer counting

:shrug:

[me b zola]

8. done

Ugh. The people who don't have the money for an ID prolly don't have the $$ for a computer to vote in this poll either.

[madokie]

11. done