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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsVoter ID Is the Real Fraud
For the first time since the Supreme Court junked a core provision of the Voting Rights Act in June, a federal court has used the strongest surviving part of the act to strike down a states voter-identification law, and, in the process, has set out a detailed road map for upcoming challenges to similar laws around the country.
Supporters of these laws insist they are necessary to prevent fraud at the polls, though such fraud is basically nonexistent. The real point is to deter from the polls significant numbers of Democratic voters, particularly minorities and the poor.
That was the heart of the reasoning by Judge Lynn Adelman of Federal District Court in Milwaukee, who issued an extraordinarily thorough 90-page ruling on Tuesday invalidating Wisconsins voter-ID law as a harmful solution in search of an imaginary problem. The law was passed by a Republican-controlled statehouse in 2011 and required that a prospective voter present a government-issued photo ID, like a drivers license or passport.
Virtually no voter impersonation occurs in Wisconsin, and it is exceedingly unlikely that voter impersonation will become a problem in Wisconsin in the foreseeable future, the judge wrote.
A person would have to be insane to commit voter-impersonation fraud, he added, pointing to high costs of being prosecuted for that crime compared with the low benefits of casting one additional vote.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/30/opinion/voter-id-is-the-real-fraud.html?emc=edit_ty_20140430&nl=opinion&nlid=41565923&_r=0
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)It seems like such an easy solution and save the Democrats from spending money fighting these lawsuits and perhaps use the money on getting candidates elected. The ID could be used for banking and everything else too.
PeaceNikki
(27,985 posts)In addition, one would assume you would want/need to show a state-issued picture ID to get an ID like you're talking about. Especially if it could be used for other things, like banking. So... not a simple solution. Same exact problem. Same poll tax.
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)All they want is my driver's license and then verify my identity on their computers.
PeaceNikki
(27,985 posts)And it should stay that way
Johonny
(20,890 posts)hmm... i
Gothmog
(145,619 posts)These laws serve no other purpose.