Reply #5: Student ID should work at the polls [View All]

[dflprincess]

If you're already registered and if it has a picture. (Or your student id and something with your picture.) I think what she wants is to require picture ID's when you vote. I don't know she can do this without the legislature's okay.

Before I took the Old One in to get her ID I called to see what kind of documentation they needed. They told me birth certificate, marriage certificate or passport. Social Security wouldn't do it.

It's all rather weird. Mom is 80 now - the description on her birth certificate doesn't really look like her anymore. The guy at the DMV has some problem with her marriage certificate - even though it had a Hennepin County seal on it. Apparently he hadn't seen one this old and I gather the current ones must indicate what last name one plans to use. I had to explain to him that in 1946 it was assumed the bride would take her husband's name. We really could have walked in with anyone's birth and marriage certificates. Just so the baby's name and the maiden name on the marriage license matched.

The catch-22 was, she had to pay cash for the ID because the DMV won't take a check without picture ID. This after proving who she is.

Proving identity can be a big problem for some people. Several years ago my friend's dad needed to get a passport. The court house where his birth certificate was suppose to be had burned down long before microfiche or computers - even his military discharge papers weren't good enough. What they finally accepted an affidavit from his older sister swearing he was who he said he was.