"People need ID to cash a check or to board a plane"

[question everything]

Is a common comment we hear from the ones pushing, and enacting the voter ID laws.

And I wish the interviewer would stop and tell them how disingenuous this claim is.

No one has a "right" to fly or to cash a check. As a matter of fact, the poor and the elderly who will be affected by these laws really don't use such services.

[KamaAina]

1. Caca de toro

there are plenty of check cashing places that say "No ID". They're generally more expensive, but they exist.

[Gothmog]

2. Actually, TSA Regulations are clear that photo id not required

http://blog.tsa.gov/2013/04/tsa-travel-tips-tuesday-can-you-fly.html

While it is much easier to go through screening with the proper identification, you’re not going to cause a snafu if you don’t have it.

If you’re 17 or younger, no problem… you don’t need ID to travel. If you’re 18 or older, no worries… you can still travel.

[bemildred]

3. Citizens are not customers, we're the boss. nt

[Gothmog]

4. Here is a NYT story about a person who had no id

http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/flying-without-a-photo-id/?_r=0

According to the Transportation Security Administration’s Web site, a federal- or state-issued photo identification is required to fly. But, the site adds: “We understand passengers occasionally arrive at the airport without an ID due to lost items or inadvertently leaving them at home. Not having an ID does not necessarily mean a passenger won’t be allowed to fly. If passengers are willing to provide additional information, we have other means of substantiating someone’s identity, like using publicly available databases.”

The special T.S.A. agent had me sign a form, allowing the agency to verify my identity. He asked me if I had any other form of identification (I didn’t), or if my husband had anything in his wallet that had my name on it. (Again, no.) I did have a checkbook, bearing checks that had both my name and my husband’s, so I handed that over for him to examine. Then, he called someone else on his phone, and asked me some questions — things like my previous addresses and my date of birth. It reminded me of the online verification process you go through when opening a bank account or obtaining your credit report.

Apparently I answered satisfactorily, because the agent was finally given a number that he jotted on my boarding pass, before waving me on to be screened. The process took about 15 to 20 minutes. I asked if I could have some sort of documentation of the screening process for my return flight, but he shook his head. “Make sure you get to the airport early,” he advised, in case the screening process took longer on the trip home. (It didn’t. The process was much the same, although I was asked slightly different versions of the screening questions, and had my hands swabbed before being sent on my way.)

The claim that you need an id to fly is wrong.

[modrepub]

5. Here's a list of people who did not need to show ID before they voted

George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr... You can probably come up with more. What is the point of the registration process if you have to have ID to vote? The system works fine so why do these "government red tape" people insist on adding more layers of "red tape" to the voting process?

Personally, I think the whole voter ID madness is designed to gum up the voting process in hopes people in crowded (democratic) voting places will just go home instead of voting when they see the line.

[Hosnon]

6. I think most places require ID to purchase a firearm.

Which _is_ a right, as well.

But the entire question is bullshit because it is a smokescreen for advocation of suppressing the votes of people who tend to vote for Democrats. Unless and until someone can show me a substantial voter fraud problem, the right to vote should not be burdened in this way.

[n2doc]

7. But it is NEVER just an ID

The Repubs ALWAYS make the ID in question something difficult and expensive to obtain. People think something like a check cashing card would be ok, and it never is.

[krispos42]

11. And then they shut down the agency branches that issue the IDs

Controlling elections by controlling who casts votes in the elections, both directly and indirectly.



Black box voting. Gerrymandering. Which precincts get the new machines. How many people each precinct serves. How many people each voting machine serves. ID(s) required to vote. Locations to acquire the ID(s). Costs to acquire the ID(s). Early voting... or not. Absentee voting.... or not. Redrawing precincts at random. Juggling polling places at random to confuse voters on election day.

[NashuaDW]

8. ... and no one has a 'RIGHT' to vote

Nowhere in the Constitution does it guarantee your right to vote (except for Senator).
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2013/may/30/mark-pocan/us-constitution-not-explicit-right-vote-wisconsin-/

[ljm2002]

9. There are many rights that are not enumerated in the Constitution...

...e.g. the right to privacy, among others.

The Ninth Amendment reads:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

In other words, because you cannot find a particular right enumerated there, does not mean you can claim it does not exist.

Then there's the Fifteenth Amendment:

Section 1.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Section 2.

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

You will note this amendment specifically refers to the right of citizens of the United States to vote. And, of course, the Amendments to our Constitution are by law part of the Constitution.

If you actually READ the link you cited, you would see that it concerns the claim that the Constitution lacks an EXPLICIT statement of our right to vote. Here are a few excerpts:

Judith Best, distinguished teaching professor of political science at State University of New York-Cortland, told us the key phrase in Pocan’s claim is "explicitly guarantees."

"It seems clear to me that the obvious intent" of the Constitution, she said, "is that the people are to choose their governments -- their representatives."

Similarly, Roger Pilon at the libertarian Cato Institute -- who doubts Pocan’s amendment would have much impact, if adopted -- told us that amendments to the Constitution make it clear there is a right to vote.

"It’s so implicit as to be all but explicit," he said.

We’ll leave the final word to scholar Hans von Spakovsky of the conservative Heritage Foundation and author of Who’s Counting?: How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk.

"It is correct that there is not an explicit provision in the Constitution guaranteeing the right to vote," he said, "but several amendments guarantee the right to vote at age 18, free of racial discrimination, and protected by the Equal Protection doctrine."

[question everything]

10. Thank you for a detailed and comprehensive research

This is what I like about DU - so many knowledgeable individuals who share and explain the question at hand.

[RudynJack]

13. Yes, thank you.

We can't "like" individual posts, but ones like yours deserve credit.

[NYC Liberal]

16. Yes it does. The 14th Amendment refers to the right to vote

"at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof".

[davidpdx]

12. I'm pissed because I recently lost my driver's license

Not lost as it misplaced it, but was not able to renew it. The reason doesn't have to do with voting (fortunately Oregon law isn't as draconian as some other states), but a second ID is important in many cases especially when traveling. I'm overseas and they won't let me have a license at home anymore. I originally got my license in 1988 and lost it in 2013. Now all I have is my dang foreign one.

[Recursion]

15. I know exactly what you mean

I lost mine a few years back and was literally off the grid for about 18 months because it's so damn hard to get all the ducks in a row you need to have in a row. And I have a college degree and a good job; I can't imagine what it's like for someone more marginally attached to the economy.

[Recursion]

14. And millions of Americans are kept from doing either of those

or, in the case of check-cashing, forced to pay absurdly high fees.

Yeah, I'm hoping we have higher standards for voting rights than that...

[Empowerer]

17. Exactly. Not only that, but

1. You don't need a government-issued photo id to get on a plane;

2. As you said, flying on an airplane is not right;

3. If you can't get on a plane because of lack of id, there are many other alternatives for getting where you're going - car, plane, train.

4. Taking a flight is not an exclusive, time-limited thing. If you can't get on a flight today because of lack of id, you can go tomorrow or the next day or the next day. Voting, on the other hand, can only be done within a very specific window of time and if you can't do it then, you will never be able to vote again in that particular election.