Voter ID laws are BS - in case you need more

[zelda25]

evidence:

www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-voter-id-laws-20120709,0,2415732.story

Associated Press

July 8, 2012, 10:33 p.m.
When Edward and Mary Weidenbener voted in Indiana's Republican primary in May, they didn't realize state law required them to bring government photo IDs, such as a driver's license or passport.

The husband and wife, both approaching 90, had to use temporary ballots that would be verified later, even though they knew the people working the polling site that day. Unaware that Indiana law obligated them to follow up with the county election board, the Weidenbeners votes' ultimately were rejected — news to them until a reporter recently informed them.

Edward Weidenbener, a World War II veteran who had voted for Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential contest, said he was surprised by the rules and the consequences.

"A lot of people don't have a photo ID. They'll be automatically disenfranchised," he said.

As more states put in place strict voter ID rules, an Associated Press review of temporary ballots from Indiana and Georgia, which first adopted the most stringent standards, found that more than 1,200 such votes were tossed during the 2008 general election.

During sparsely attended primaries this year in Georgia, Indiana and Tennessee, the states implementing the toughest laws, hundreds more ballots were blocked.

More than two dozen states have an ID requirement, and 11 of those passed new rules over the last two years largely at the urging of Republicans who say they want to prevent fraud.

Democrats and voting rights groups fear that ID laws could suppress votes among people who may not typically have a driver's license, disproportionately affecting the elderly, the poor and minorities. Although the votes constitute a small percentage of the overall total, they could sway a close election.

A Republican leader in Pennsylvania said recently that the state's new ID law would allow Romney to win the state over President Obama.

Supporters of the laws cite anecdotal cases of fraud as a reason that states need to do more to secure elections, but fraud appears to be rare. As part of its effort to build support for voter ID laws, the Republican National Lawyers Assn. last year published a report that identified some 400 election fraud prosecutions over a decade across the country. That's not even one per state per year.

ID laws would not have prevented many of those cases because they involved vote-buying schemes in local elections or people who falsified voter registrations.

Election administrators and academics who monitor the issue said in-person fraud is rare because someone would have to impersonate a registered voter and risk arrest.

Michael Thielen, executive director of the Republican lawyers group, said its survey was not comprehensive and he believed vote fraud was a serious problem.

"Most of it goes unreported and unprosecuted," he said.

[emisi]

Jul 9, 2012 10:40:11 GMT -5 zelda25 said:

"A lot of people don't have a photo ID. They'll be automatically disenfranchised," he said.

Yep, that's the whole point.

[msmerymac]

Yup, my grandmother never learned how to drive, and the only job she ever held was at the family restaurant business. She voted in plenty of elections before she got a photo ID (when she was in her 70s, and then only because she needed it to travel by plane to visit her daughter).

[lys]

You can get a FREE gov't ID in many states. Take some personal responsibility and get one if you need one.
If the Weidenbreners did not follow up with the county clerk's office as required (after being given a ballot and voted )-- that was not disenfrancisement.
Didn't Jame O'Keefe do a sting operation by saying he was someone else and the were going to give him a ballot?
Cook county has a well deserved reputation of the dead voting and in the 1960 election over 56 people from the same address voted (no, not an apartment building).
I believe in voter ID - it prevents fraud.
If this is a concern, then see that there are more FREE opportunities to obtain an ID and that people are aware of the requirement. Work with those that need an ID>
How is this a problem for the poor if they need an ID to get welfare? Food stamps?

[lahoagie]

Jul 9, 2012 16:10:35 GMT -5 toledo said:

Jul 9, 2012 16:00:26 GMT -5 lys said:

I believe in voter ID - it prevents fraud.

How?

I saw a Simpson's episode where all of the dead animals in the pet cemetery voted. Thank goodness Lisa and Bart figured it out (well mostly Lisa). Voter ID would have totally prevented that.