Quote:
Originally Posted by
JohnCommode
"How many people do you think are truly disenfranchised -- people who CAN'T get ID without a tremendous amount of hassle or expense? That number has to be miniscule. It's a non-problem. You don't toss away the security of an election for this tiny, tiny minority."
By definition, any drastic change to voting laws will change the composition of the electorate and artificially alter election results.
I think that you may be underestimating how difficult it might be for some rural elderly voters to comply with ID laws, especially for the number of poor black voters in the South that were born at home because of either expense or lack of access to segregated healthcare facilities. Is this number huge? No, but neither is the number of illegal voters.
I think that voter fraud vs voter disenfranchisement is basically a "wash" involving small numbers. We have laws to prosecute voter fraud and the number of prosecutions are minuscule in spite of the diligence of organizations like "True the Vote" to monitor voting in minority areas. They should rename their organization to "True the Black and Brown Vote".
It's so sad to see the Party of Lincoln and Eisenhower move in the direction of actively discouraging voting. Voting used to be thought of as a patriotic act that was encouraged by both parties. Many black veterans came back from risking their lives in WWII and lived in places where they couldn't vote. That was a real issue, not this non-problem.
Unfortunately you are falling right into the trap talking points set by the left regarding this issue. Whenever logical-minded people start talking about closing the outrageous gaping security hole in our elections (where I could register a dog to vote in 5 minutes, and then easily vote as him), we immediately hear two quick leftist talking points:
1) Fake registration voter fraud isn't a problem, and "studies" show this. (Even though such "studies" are impossible to be anywhere near accurate, since this is almost impossible to detect when it occurs.)
2) Voter ID is racist and will disenfranchise poor people, especially black poor people.
Point #1 is easy to refute, though that doesn't stop the left from repeatedly trotting it out, since their claim about "studies show..." tends to shut down most morons who can't think critically.
However, point #2 is much more complicated. Indeed, there are some Americans who simply can't get ID easily because of the lack of a birth certificate or other ID, or extreme difficulty in obtaining such certificates.
I agree that these people need a vote, and you can't just dismiss the issue with, "Tough luck, solve it for yourself". However, the left is not interested in reforms which would allow these people to vote. There are various ways to do this, yet the left isn't interested. They are simply against Voter ID, period. You don't hear the left talking about reforms to get ID for these people, or reforms to Voter ID laws allowing them a path to vote. The left doesn't want any of that, because this isn't really about disenfranchisement. In reality, Democrats know that they will lose votes with Voter ID laws, because most people without ID simply don't want ID, or are too lazy to bother getting ID. So even if the "can't get ID" people are taken care of, Democrats still lose votes under a Voter ID system, and they hate that.
I am wiling to admit that the right mainly wants Voter ID laws because it benefits them.
Why can't you guys admit that the left's motives in fighting Voter ID laws isn't pure, and that they mainly want to avoid losing votes from people who are too lazy to get ID?
It is still insane to me that many of you are supporting a voting system with zero security, which is what non-ID systems really are. If I could take 5 minutes to register my dog and successfully vote in his name, you know the system is a disaster.