NYT/AP: Study: Some States Making It Harder to Vote

[DeepModem Mom]

Some States Making It Harder to Vote
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 12, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- Some states have enacted laws that make it harder to vote instead of correcting ballot problems that have plagued various parts of the country since the 2000 election, according to a study released Thursday.

Describing their findings as ''troubling,'' voting reform advocates sampled 10 states with past election difficulties. Especially worrisome, the report said, were laws passed by a handful of states, including Arizona and Georgia, that require a government-issued photo identification card and proof of citizenship before being allowed to vote.

Though both state laws were later blocked by judges, ''the damage has already been done,'' confusing would-be voters and severely hampering voter registration drives, said Tova Wang of The Century Foundation think tank, which conducted the survey with Common Cause and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Also troublesome was a lack of electronic voting policies that could make voting lines in the upcoming midterm contest even longer than those in 2004....The study found that the problems with electronic voting were not just malfunctioning machines, but also the lack of available machines. ''There were long lines because there were inequitably distributed voting machines,'' Wang said. Since 2004, most states have only vague guidelines. Florida and Washington, for example, have no formula for determining the number of voting machines in each precinct, the study said.

After the 2004 debacle in Ohio, a law was passed mandating one machine for every 175 registered voters. But it is not enforceable until 2013....

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Voting-Problems.html

[Mnemosyne]

1. k and r n/t

[texpatriot2004]

2. That's NOT very Democratic of them eh. nm

[Kurovski]

3. K&R.(nt)

[civildisoBDence]

4. How 'bout a photo ID in which the photo is taken of your image in a mirror

That way, it would hurt Republicans worse than Democrats.

Newsprism--News and commentary, left to right

[zonmoy]

13. only if it was a magic mirror that showed the nature of the persons soul

then all repukes would look like the love child of a Gorgon and satan.

[MGKrebs]

5. In Georgia, the election board sent out photo ID notices AFTER

the law had already been struck down.
The confusion is likely to be substantial. Not sure if the state party has the resources to do much about it. Non-profits are working to correct things, but their (our) reach is limited.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2559957&mesg_id=2559957

[bliss_eternal]

8. Since you're in GA...

if I may ask, who is this affecting specifically? Just curious. :hi:

[Up2Late]

9. I'm in Georgia too, so I can answer your question. Here's the major...

...problem. It's NOT the Red Herring issue of the small Fee (which has now been dropped due to court action), it's the fact that there are only about 58 locations to get one of these IDs in ALL of Georgia (that's not the exact number, but it's close), sounds O.K., right?

But here's the thing, Georgia has 159 Counties!

<http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108201.html>

Also, other than the in and around the Atlanta Metro area, Georgia has very limited public transportation (Buses and Trains), so for all the Rural Poor and Elderly who don't have a Drivers License and who, one would guess, don't have a working Car or Truck they would need to DRIVE to one of the 58 State offices from the more than 100 counties that DO NOT have one of these State offices, how are they going to get to one of these Offices to get the ID?

Maybe they know someone who can go get them and drive them to one of these offices, but then again, maybe they don't, Georgia is a BIG state! Who knows? The ReThugs in the State Legislature never addressed this question.

And even if they do have someone to drive them, do they have a copy of their Birth Certificate or Passport to bring with them to get this ID? Probably not. A lot of the older Rural Black people here never had a Birth Certificate, because they weren't allowed in the Rural Georgia hospitals before the 1970's.

Those are the biggest problems these laws create, I'm sure there are more.

[bliss_eternal]

10. Thank you for sharing background on this, Up2late...!

:hi:

It sounds like a legal way to cut out the poor, elderly and minorities. :mad::cry::grr: That's just so wrong!
A legal way for them to cheat, essentially. :eyes: Disgusting...

[Malidictus Maximus]

12. Thanks,

yours is the first actual explanation that makes sense for why ID would- or should - be opposed.

Here in California EVERYBODY (who is legally here) has a drivers license or some other form of govt ID; so I could never understand the resistance to voter ID. Of course *I* would like to see people have to answer a multiple choice test on the issues before they could vote on them, but that is because we have so many propositions and very deceptive advertising regarding them.

[DirtyDawg]

19. The Problem in Geogia...

...is that the Democratic Party establishment either doesn't have the money, the smarts or the desire to organize an effective effort against what has become a Republican stranglehold on Georgia politics. Don't be confused, the repugs that are in power here now are simply the genetic evolvement of the racist, bigoted, selfish bunch (aka Dixiecrats) that ruled Georgia and the South's politics for 100 plus years - they just turned into, whalah, conservative, religious, family-values Republicans. Regardless, Bobby Kahn, the head of the Demo party here - who used to be Roy Barnes' (the former Governor who lost to the first repig guv - Perdue - since reconstruction) chief-of-staff enforser and was, Kahn, one of the reasons Barnes lost. The guy is a mean-spririted, arm twisting SOB that made enemies on both sides of the aisle and that now that he no longer has the power to hurt you, doesn't have a friend in the world. He won't listen to Howard Dean's DNC reps and I'm beginning to wonder if he's really trying. I think they've given up and are just trying to make sure they keep a job.

This voter registration crap has been the repig's 'anti Gay Marriage' issue from two years ago - if you don't have an issue to stir up your base, come up with something that will stiffle your opponent's base. They, demo party, should be tearing up the repig party for the continued deceit, lies and 'dirty tricks'...they should be fully mobilized with door to door canvassing - including the poor neighborhoods, retirement communities, churches...anywhere those most likely effected by this voter ID crap are likely to be.

The other thing the demos should be doing is hanging the failures of the Bush administration and the repig leadership in Washington around the local repig candidates collective necks. Don't engage in 'tit-for-tat', 'he-said, he-said' pap, tell everybody it's not about that, it's about the fact that a vote for any Republican anywhere - including Georgia - is an endorsement for these catastrophic failures...we need to clean house of the 'enablers' of the process - the Governors, Congressmen/women and Senators - that have voted in lock-step with this vile bunch.

[bunkerbuster1]

20. B-but Georgia, they've got a bus to provide ID to the poor/elderly!

This here bus!

http://www.dds.ga.gov/drivers/glowbus.aspx

One whole bus fer the whole state!

Ain't that grand?

(on edit) And Bill O'Reilly sez it's enough!

http://mediamatters.org/items/200508100004

From the August 8 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: There is, however, a serious issue amongst all the nonsense. As I mentioned, Jackson and some others are objecting to voters having to produce picture IDs in Georgia, but why? This is an anti-fraud measure. And the state of Georgia says it will actually come to your house and give you an ID if you don't already have one. Sounds reasonable to me. But, no -- far-left pundits like Cynthia Tucker, the editorial page boss of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, says asking for IDs will disenfranchise some minorities.


(the idea that Cynthia Tucker is a "far left pundit" is, well, O'Reillyesque in its stupidity.)

[Up2Late]

24. Thank for the link to that GLOW bus. Funny how they only list...

...it's location for ONE day next week, and even that's in Dekalb County, an Atlanta Metro County that DOES have one of the permanent State offices were residents can get one of the required IDs.

I'm going to start tracking that bus and website, to see if it ever leaves the Atlanta Metro area.

[Auntie Bush]

27. So that's why George and KKKarl are so sure the Rethugs will

maintain control of the house and Senate. Remember when he was told Gore won...and he denied it? He knew his brother and Kathleen had fixed the election. His self confidence really scares me. He has much more to lose than just the election...like his freedom when we get done prosecuting him!

[think4yourself]

11. I'm in Georgia too

It was voted down right? And then quite a few (10,000?) postcards had ALREADY been mailed out. This was proposed under the guise of illegal immigration reform? Is that right?
It ends up affecting those who don't have a car and driver's license. People known as city dwellers. And we all know which Party THEY vote for, right?

[Up2Late]

28. The people of Georgia never voted it down, but it has been ruled...

...Unconstitutional by a couple of County and State Courts, but of course, "Sonny" is appealing the rulings.

[MGKrebs]

17. I think the biggest demographic they are targeting is

urban elderly voters. These people have been voting regularly for decades, and if you vote regularly, you don't need to re-register. They are on the voter roll, they probably vote in the primaries, but they haven't ever needed any extra ID. They often don't drive, they may live in a retirement type facility.

I think someone in the Repub party examined the voter roll and saw this demographic and decided to add a hurdle for them. It is unconscionable and no one has ever given any explanation about how this ID prevents any kind of fraud, and voter ID fraud doesn't even exist here anyway.

[bliss_eternal]

21. That demographic is very invested in voting rights...

African American elderly voters still recall a time in this country when they did not have that right. They are dedicated and loyal voters, and believe in utilizing the right many fought hard to get.

I agree that it is unconscionable that anyone would devise a way to take their right away from them. Using their limited mobility (based on not driving and/or being retirement residents), to the advantage of the republican party is disturbing to me...

:mad::grr:

[Up2Late]

6. NO! REALLY!?!? This just can't be true!!!

...that this is News to anyone, that is. Good to see the issue covered though.

K&R :kick:

[bliss_eternal]

7. Is this some sort of crack down on illegal immigrants...?

:shrug: ...attempting to vote? I wasn't aware that any were trying to?

That's what it sounds like to me, asking for such specific id. Forgive my ignorance, I'm just wondering why this instead of just getting rid of the black boxes for voting. It would also help if people weren't allowed to intimidate or deny voters of color the right to vote, as I've heard was done in 2000 and in 2004 in GA and Ohio.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. And some groups that vote Dem -- minorities, as you mention, and...

the poor, the disabled, etc., who are less likely to have what they're requiring to vote.

[blondeatlast]

16. Add to that that it adds possibly another 15-30 seconds at the polls...

So now we have Voter ID laws (AZ Supremes have struck down the law, see below--I bet an awful lot of polling places "won't get the message." I do try not to be cynical, but this kind of shit is becoming institutionalized). That adds maybe another 15 seconds to the process FOR THE FIRST VOTER on ED. The second voter is also delayed now, perhaps another 5 seconds, then the third, another 5-10, the fourth, another 10-15, and you begin to see how this can clog up things at understaffed polling places--and guess where most of them are?

If you guessed in poorer, ethnic areas, you win a big "I FIGURED OUT THE LEGAL VOTING CHEAT" award! Try not to get tooo excited... :sarcasm:

I'm glad our Supremes enforced the unConstitutionality of this law, I just hope that others do the same and that our polling places get the message. With our Secretary of State Katherine Harris-Lite (er, I mean, Jan Brewer) I'm not counting on it.

[DeepModem Mom]

18. Very good point. nt

[MGKrebs]

22. Those immigrants are the one's with the fake ID's to begin with!

This would do nothing to prevent illegal's from voting, even though that it part of the rhetoric being used to scare people.

I don't know about other states, but it is highly unlikely that undocumented residents could even get past the registration process, and what person who is not here legally anyway is going to show up to cast a vote using someone else's identification?

[EFerrari]

30. And FL and NM and NV and CO and CA and AZ and so on. n/t

[blondeatlast]

15. Arizona Supreme Court has struck down Voter ID

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15154688/

The state plans to appeal, but they won't have time before 11/7, I imagine.

Our wacko citizens and state legislature want to break the law, but dan\mn if those "activist judges" won't let them!

[lies and propaganda]

23. i was just about to post this.

Its just a way to not allow 'the illegals' as we so lovingly refer to them here, to vote.

[McCamy Taylor]

25. Beware of GOP poll watchers who will try to misinform people about the law

Or even try to turn people away from the polls for lack of photo ID.

[boobooday]

26. Bus signs

Here in Indiana tell us to bring our "papers" with us when we go to vote.

Photo ID required.

[what now toons]

29. "The Monster That Ate My Vote"- (a new cartoon)

You bet they're making it harder to vote, every way they can. They know that the people are not behind their corporate policies, so they have no choice but to steal, every witch way they can. Be it removing people from the voting rolls, or the most insidious, the electronic voting machine. There is no question in my mind that these voting machines are changing the outcomes of many elections. Plus they have the complicity of the major news media to sell their lies of how the vote became what it did.
These monsters are among us, shredding our democracy in tiny pieces. They have Privatized our vote to the Corporate elite, who, with intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this democracy with envious eyes,and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twenty-first century came the great deception.
Yes, the Robber Barron's are back, and this time they have locked down the voice of the people with these technological terrors. Now on the eve of what seems to be a democratic victory in the House and Senate, the shadow of these vote eating monsters looms over our greatest hopes for a return to a Jeffersonian democracy. My latest cartoon "The Monster That Ate My Vote" can be seen at my website.
www.whatnowtoons.com

[EFerrari]

31. Welcome to DU, what now toons.

:)

[loyalsister]

32. Fed. Court struck down MO law

The MO Supreme court heard it and we are waiting for the ruling. One of the justices became aware of the fact that he would not have the proper ID to vote when listening to the case.

One of the main problems with the MO law is that documents required to obtain the ID all cost money. Thus, even if the ID itself is free it is a poll tax because money has to be spent to get what is needed to acquire the ID.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/15677426.htm