PHOTO ID to vote??

[serryjw]

Please no flame...I think this is a silly issue that the dems are fighting for. I am concerned about NON citizens voting. IF you are a citizen there is no way you can live here w/o a state issued picture ID. You either have a D/L or not( I only have a state issued ID), can't get a job(requires proof of eligibility of employment), can't get on a plane, can't cash a check, can't open a back account, can't open up utiliies. How the hell do you live w/o an ID?

quote........
But some say that many poor and elderly lack the documentation, such as birth certificates, needed to obtain a photo ID and will be afraid to try to vote—no matter how lenient the state might claim to be.

More than 675,000 registered voters either had no record of a driver’s license or ID issued to them, or have had their license revoked, suspended, cancelled, denied or surrendered, according to Secretary of State Cathy Cox's office. Nearly one in four of all registered voters age 65 or older lack a driver’s license or Georgia ID, and a third of elderly African-American voters don't have this form of identification
end quote....

http://www.sundaypaper.com/NEWS/News/NewsArchives/tabid/202/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1588/070206-News.aspx

[Taverner]

1. I agree with you but...

Your poll responses are basically the same thing - there's a double negative in there

[serryjw]

6. OOPS! Thanks

n/t

[dubeskin]

2. Think about it this way though, the Republians hate illegals

wouldn't we want that vote? It could only help. But really, there shouldn't be a neccesary I.D. It will only lead to more conflict.

[serryjw]

10. F*CK NO!!!!!!

I follow the rules whether they help or hurt dems. You didn't explain WHY you think it's OK to NOT have an ID to register or vote.

[BigYawn]

37. You want to "steal" the elections by using illegals? So you are no better

than the republicans?

[MADem]

3. Both of your choices are the same

No picture ID, or NOT REQUIRED....

[liberalmuse]

4. Poll tax...

Georgia charges $25.00 for these ID's. Granted, it's a one-time fee, but I feel it is the equivalant of a poll tax, since the poor are not going to be able to afford these ID's. Voting should be easy and painless, but it seems the 'pubs want to disenfranchise working class Americans from the process.

[serryjw]

12. Let the states pay for anyone on

assistance that is elderly. Rights come with a cost..this is a cheap one.

[PsN2Wind]

5. Your poll seems to ask

Are you against it or are you against it? Shouldn't there be are you for it?

[FSogol]

7. Why are you concerned about Non-Citizens voting?

They would still have to register and would have to show an id then.
Has anyone alleged that non-citizens are voting? I find that idea suspect.

[serryjw]

9. Obsolutely

It was being discussed on C-span this morning. Whether they need a photo ID to register or to vote, it's the same argument. IN CO, I needed an ID to register but not to vote.

[FSogol]

15. I asked "WHY are you concerned?", not "Are you concerned?" n/t

[serryjw]

20. HUH???????????????

Why are you concerned about Non-Citizens voting? Because they have NO right to vote.

[FSogol]

21. What makes you think they are voting?

And with all of the other voting problems, why worry about this one?

[serryjw]

22. Because it's fucken illegal

I want HONEST elections in all matter. IF you are a citizen there is no reason not to have an ID. You can't possible live here w/o one.

[FSogol]

23. Dude, try some reading comprehension: What causes you to believe

that they are voting? Is an article? a website? You caught some?

I understand it is against the law. Is it common? Is it happening in your neighborhood?

[serryjw]

24. I'm a dudette

It was being discussed on C-span this morning concerning the amendments to the voting rights act in congress.

[FSogol]

25. Sorry Dudette. I think this is a sham issue intended to

drive people away from voting. The GOP has a big history of trying to limit registration, lower voting turnout, harassing people at the polls, etc.

Saying an id is to prevent non-citizens from voting is a cover. They are really trying to keep the poor from voting.

Until I see otherwise, I think that the number of non-citizens who vote are too close to zero to worry about.

[CottonBear]

54. Idiot, Dixiecrat Charlie Norwood of GA was "discussing" this on CSPAN

Don't listen to him or believe him: he's a racist, Dixiecrat in GOP clothing. I live in GA. I know what is happening here and what is not happening here and what is not happening is non-citizens are not voting. Period. End of story.

[bunkerbuster1]

82. Backing you up here. The GOPee are actively disenfranchising voters

The sole reason for the GA photo ID bill has been to boost Fascist candidates. They have no recorded instances of "voter fraud" anywhere since one case in 1998.

The courts have put a hold on this abortion of a bill, and I'm glad they have.

[BOSSHOG]

8. Trick answers?

They both are the same are they not or am I dyslexic. I have no problem with photo ID's. Why should we allow bush supporters to vote without identification when they use diebold machines. Mississippi provides a voter registration card with personel information but no picture. However at every election since the card has been issued in 2004, I'm the only one who shows it at the polling place. I guess 24 years in the military I am programmed to have my ID handy.

[serryjw]

14. We might as well solve it

Encrypted national ID cards are coming....SOON! Then what is everyone going to do?

[BOSSHOG]

16. I think such ID cards should be issued by the states for their residents

Not by the national government. The military ID card will eventually have the member's medical record encrypted on the back.

[serryjw]

19. They will be

state issued but 100% the same as other states, except for state name. They are supposed to have a mag strip like a credit card....not very happy about the idea.

[niccolos_smile]

11. Put it on the registration card...

Seriously, if photo id is such a big deal, then put it on the voter registration card. It's a fairly simple procedure, it would prevent fraud, and it wouldn't deny people the right to vote.

This was actually suggested when this came up in the Texas Legislature, but the amendment was killed.

[On the Road]

30. I Like That Solution

Right now, all you need is a registration card. Adding photo ID as a requirement would inevitably lead to many people not voting who otherwise could. Who is at fault for the lack of ID is less important than the mere fact that it suppresses the vote.

Although I don't think voting by illegals or impersonating another voter is a widespread problem or swing many elections, they do happen and are forms of election fraud. I don't how you can support clean elections and fail to address them.

Modifying the registration card that's already required is one of the few proposals that would address both fraud and vote suppression.

[God Almighty]

13. Not true. Often wallets are stolen & it takes weeks to get new picture ID

This is a fact of life. Where I live, the Registrar is not allowed to ask for picture IDs and this is good. You have to be registered in advance. A fraud would have to count on someone not voting for themselves. Picture IDs would only be good for same-day registration, which is also a good thing.

[LA lady]

18. Another way to steal a vote

My husband and his brother went to vote a few years ago and were told they had already voted. I have fought for IDs ever since. That was a stolen vote just as sure as any Diebold vote.

[pooja]

17. In Floriduh... a photo I.D. and voter registration card are

required the first time you vote, after that, only a registration card is necessary.

Elderly peoples who are established in a home and with a bank and don't drive, rarely have this. While we find it amazing, it isn't. If I were to ask my grandmother if she had her birth certificate, I doubt she would be able to find it. And I'm not sure where anyone would keep records that were 76yrs old. She does have a driver's license... but that is just a re-issued piece of paper. If she didn't drive at all she wouldn't keep one. If she goes into the bank, she doesn't need an I.D., everyone knows her there. And when she votes the town clerk lady checks her name off on a piece paper that says she voted.

My grandmother resides in VT in a rural setting. Georgia also maintains some very rural areas like this. I know Atlanta screams busy and traffic, but the whole state isn't like that. Illegals don't usually try to call attention to themselves. And I know there are more illegals with D/L than old folks that can't even see to drive.

[CottonBear]

53. I'm in GA and I know of no illegal having ever voted here. Period.

They keep to themselves and live in the shadows. There are maybe 8,000 - 10,000 in my town but they are almost invisible except when the men are at work or when the families go to WalMart or K-Mart on the weekend. They wouldn't try to draw attention to themselves by going to the county courthouse to register to vote.

Believe me when I tell you: the real issue is ELECTION FRAUD here in GA.

[aden_nak]

26. How about if we make the machines count the ballots.

Then we worry about who is casting ballots in them.

[RethugAssKicker]

27. An illegal alien cannot vote..You must be a citizen to vote !

Is that not enough!... How does an id/or not give them the right to vote...There is NO VOTER FRAUD...only ELECTION FRAUD...

This is just another rethug attempt to suppress votes....THEY KNOW...the more people vote ... the less rethugs will win...

They're tactic is to limit voters...Plain and SIMPLE

[guidod]

28. HELL NO!!

No ID photos and keep me out of any huge data base. We're going to be walking zombies one of these days.

[serryjw]

31. YOU have one

why should everyone else not be required to get one?

[Radical Activist]

29. There are a lot of poor people who live without a picture ID.

Yes, it does happen and there are millions. The article you quote clearly refutes your point that everyone has an ID so I'm not sure why you still suggest that is the case.

Additionally, ID's are not free so it amounts to a poll tax.

[politicat]

32. No ID - it's a poll tax in disguise.

Yes, I have a Driver's license. But I can vote if I bring in my bank statement, a utility bill, a voter ID card - all things that are free, and things I can change my address on a lot easier than I can my DL (changing my DL costs me $20, a morning's work, and three weeks with an illegal license.) I can change my address on my bank statement and on my voter registration at any time of the day.

And the ID office is not customer friendly - long lines, slow service, rude personnel, short hours. ID offices are the worst example of poor government service.

[MercutioATC]

34. So deal with the process, not the principle.

Address the inefficiencies in the process, but there's nothing wrong with the principle of ensuring the person casting the vote is who they claim to be.

[politicat]

36. The process was never functional.

It's not broken - it was built improperly. The reason we have precinct voting is so that precinct personnel get to know their precinct members and so that the community self-polices that process. Are there too many of us in each precinct? Absolutely. Do we get to know each other effectively? No. But is it up to the feds to tell my city, county and state how to vote? Absolutely not. It's our community. We figure it out for ourselves and work out what works for us. What works in your area may be totally inappropriate for mine, and vice versa. There's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all voting ID law. The only one-size law that works are minimum laws, things like No Poll Taxes, no registration fees, no discrimination, uniform registration policies. But as for ID, every community is going to have different needs. I can see a need for ID in places like Southie, where the second largest community of illegal immigrants in the nation live (Irish); I don't see the need in Colby, Kansas, where everyone knows everyone else.

Sorry, but voting is the absolute fundamental right: every adult citizen has the right to vote. That right does not carry over to identification. There is no right to identification in this country. There is no such thing as a free picture ID in this country. Every one of them costs, and thus all of them are a poll tax. There are people who never leave their houses because of disease, age and infirmity; they don't need ID, so are you going to deny them the right to vote by absentee ballot? There are people who do everything in cash, who have lived in their houses for decades and don't need ID. I have an aunt who has never driven in her life, has lived her entire life in the same town, has had the same phone number, bank, address, since the early fifties, and is an active Dem. Are you going to deny her the right to vote because she's 70, can't get to the ID office (she walks everywhere in her town, but her town no longer has an ID office; the closest one is 45 miles away and there's no public transit) and has no need for it? It's not the average person we must consider when we make rules, it is the exception to the rule that we have to consider.

The only way we can require picture ID to vote is if picture IDs are free for all citizens and we make sure that there's an ID office within a reasonable distance of every person. Try selling that to legislatures.

[MercutioATC]

45. Your last line...that's what I'm advocating.

"The only way we can require picture ID to vote is if picture IDs are free for all citizens and we make sure that there's an ID office within a reasonable distance of every person."

Since it appears that there's going to be a national ID card in the near future anyway, I'd support deferring any ID requirement until then.

Once a National ID card is approved, they should be free. They should also be accessible.

Once a "voter ID" is free and accessible, I feel it's completely appropriate to call for ID when voting. I agree that the latest attempt (Georgia) was dismally executed..and, rightfully, barred. However, I feel the execution is the problem, not the principle.

[politicat]

47. I guess... though I don't think it's realistic.

Having spent most of my life in the midwest and the west, I know that it's just not possible to have an ID office that close to every citizen. Maybe if they will do some sort of mobile offices that spend an afternoon or evening a week in each town, but distances are big out here and the midwest has almost nothing in the way of public transit outside of the major cities (if they have that.)

I still am really leery about the whole "showing your papers" thing, though. All of the fascist regimes in the world have started out with "show your papers" and rapidly progressed to "go to jail if your papers aren't what some bureaucrat wants to see". I just don't trust any government (including a Dem government) to be smart and savvy enough about this to not fuck people's lives up.

[MercutioATC]

48. I see your point, but...

We already "show our papers" to get a driver's licence...or when we're stopped for a traffic violation.

We show them to get a mortgage, to enroll a child in school, to access heathcare (most of the time), to get on an airplane, to rent a car, to open a credit account, etc.

I don't see that requiring voter ID would lead to facism any more than showing your driver's licence to get into a bar would. There's a long way between a legitimate request to prove your identity under certain circumstances and having a jackbooted security officer demanding that you "show your papers".

[politicat]

52. I guess you've never met the Mesa, AZ cops, then....

Jack-booted security officers is about accurate. In a city where it's legal (and logical) to walk from a house to a convenience store at 2 am in the summer because it's too hot to go out when the sun's up, they feel they have the right to demand ID from anyone on the street. So yeah, I'm a bit leery of giving police any more rights or of forcing people to carry ID on them at all times. We have the right to be anonymous, and making a national ID required deprives us of the right to that anonymity. (Because a National ID has almost nothing to do with voting and everything to do with tracking and removing the right to anonymity....)

And actually, we don't have to do any of the things you mention above - all of those are optional activities (and I've never had to give a photo ID when I went to the doctor or hospital - my insurance card, sans photo, was plenty) or not required. For that matter, when we got our mortgage, we didn't have to show ID.) Technically, voting is optional, too, but the right to vote is different than the right to a mortgage or the right to access the privately owned services of a privately owned transportation carrier. The idea behind voting is that it is fully and totally open to all people, regardless of age, race, sex, income, mental ability, social class, or a few dozen other things. The right to get on a plane or buy a house is dependent on the ability to pay. Same with credit accounts, rentals, etc. ID for working is even somewhat a privilege situation - one can always go into business for oneself.

[MercutioATC]

57. And a voter ID card would enable bad cops how???

For that matter, how would a Federal ID enable them? If they're going to ask for ID, it doesn't matter what type you're carrying.

That's my entire point. Make it free and accessible and it's no more of a danger than any other form of ID we carry.

[politicat]

63. Not a voter ID card, a national ID card.

The issue is that once we make it law that everyone must have ID on them at all times, we're taking away the right to anonymity. The issue is not that it is any different than any form of ID we carry now; the issue is that we have a right not to carry ID of any sort. Right now, a city or state cannot make a law that requires a person to have ID on them at all times because ID is not free. If the law changes so that ID is free and compulsory, we lose the right to be anonymous. That's my issue.

There is no reason that I should have to carry more than a buck when I walk down to the convenience store for a midnight soda. I'm not breaking a law, not doing anything wrong. WAlking is not illegal, and cops should not be able to harass a person for walking, no matter what time it is. However, if there is a national ID law, then they have the right to stop anyone and check to make sure that they're carrying their ID. It gives them one more wedge to use to come up with their bogus probable cause. (They would use the most bogus excuses they could come up with - you're smoking, are you 18? You stumbled, are you drunk in public? You walked past a house with a barking dog; you're annoying the neighbors.... )

I'm obviously not getting through here, so I

[MercutioATC]

65. Nobody's talking about having it "at all times".

[MercutioATC]

33. Photo ID required.

Easy to get and at no cost.

Just realize that the article is obviously biased:

"More than 675,000 registered voters either had no record of a driver’s license or ID issued to them, or have had their license revoked, suspended, cancelled, denied or surrendered..."

Drivers' licences are "revoked, suspended, cancelled, denied or surrendered" for a number of reasons...none of which would prevent a person from voting. I wonder how many of the "675,000 registered voters" affected are just drunk drivers who've lost their license but could easily obtain a voter I.D. card?

Of those left, how many vote? If somebody can get to the polls to vote, I don't see why they couldn't obtain an easy-to-get, free "Voter ID".

[CottonBear]

59. In GA, only 1/3 of 156+ counties have DMV or State Patrol stations.

That is the only place to get a drivers license or non-driver ID. Most of these stations are in rural, mainly white counties. In my county (bliue, Democratic, 28% poverty rate, large pop. of students, poor, minorites, elderly, disabled and homeless) there is no public transit to the DMV office in an adjacent rural county. It is the only office for maybe a 10 county area.

[MercutioATC]

60. As I said, I realize that the PROCESS needs work.

That doesn't mean that the PRINCIPLE is flawed.

...and no, I wouldn't support enacting legislation based on the principle unless that legislation also dealt with the process.

[CottonBear]

61. Well, they did enact legislation without addressing process (or poll taxes)

and that's why the court has enjoined the GA GOP government from enforcing the law.

In GA, this Photo ID law is unnecessary and is solely targeted at suppressing the Democratic votes of urban and rural poor minorities, urban and rural elderly and the disabled.

[MercutioATC]

64. Yes, and that was a BAD thing.

I'm just saying that the implementation was flawed, not the idea.

[CottonBear]

68. We'll have to agree to disagree. I don't believe in the photo ID law. n/t

[MercutioATC]

73. Fair enough...and I do agree that implementation will be a bitch.

:)

[bunkerbuster1]

83. And they've provided exactly one (1) bus to assist disabled/elderly

in procuring photo IDs.

One.

from

http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/yourlife/voter_id.html


Responding to complaints about the accessibility of photo IDs, Perdue announced the state would send a bus on the road to issue them. But a state official conceded that the hand-me-down bus would stick close to Atlanta because it might break down. Unimpressed, critics charged the bus was nothing more than a public relations gimmick.

I repeat: One.

[Catchawave]

35. No flame here serry !

I feel more secure with the photo i.d. requirement that involves any of my rights!

Personally, it's no big deal to me. With technology today, voter i.d.'s can have a photo on their card. I've been required to have a photo on my military dependent's card since I was ten to access medical, commissary and exchange privileges.

I've needed a photo i.d. to drive and go overseas for decades! In this day and age, it's no big deal !

My concern are those 675,000 registered with no form of any kind of i.d.....??? If they're not smart enough to obtain viable personal identification, how can we trust them to be smart enough to vote Democratic :patriot:

[politicat]

39. How about the fact that they're old and have no need for an ID?

It's not a brains issue, it's a need issue. My aunt has lived in the same community for her entire life; she has owned her house since the 50s, has banked with the same bank since 1942, when she deposited her first paycheck, has had the same phone number since she moved into her house; she has never driven and never needed to. She lives in a town where she can walk to everything she needs, and the closest county office that does ID is 45 miles away in a state with no public transit. Yes, she has checking accounts, credit and credit cards; but she's never needed ID. Her paper trail is nice and long.

Are you going to deny her the right to vote because she has never needed an ID and can't get one without a massive project, involving a VERY expensive taxi ride? She's one of the 675,000 without ID. She's smart and active in the Democratic party (my uncle was a state assembly man, and she was county chair for years when she was younger).

I'd take her to get her ID, but I live 1000 miles away.

[Catchawave]

40. I'm "old"....and played by the rules....

...my entire life. Like I said, it's not a big deal.

Your Aunt can get the bank to work with her and bring her into the 21st century, or she's screwed, and don't mean about "voting".

I tell ya, I'm not buying "nobody needs an i.d." bullsh*t..TODAY. Everybody has an i.d., or they're just too LAZEEEEE. Good grief, in this day and age of modern medicare, my adult "special needs" kid needs an id to collect his bennies. I don't feel sorry for "Auntie", she needs to contact her congressman NOW !

Sidebar: My special kid is allowed to vote, and he votes Republican. I.D and all.

[politicat]

43. The bank doesn't need her to need ID. Read the bloody post.

In fact, no one needs her to have ID except the ya'll who are proposing this idiotic law. Her bank doesn't drive people around -- why would they? Does yours? I know mine doesn't. Jeez, what kind of freaked out world do you live in?

And she does "play by the rules." There is no law that requires her, or anyone else, to have ID issued by any organization. It's not about the average, it's about the exceptions.

Look, today it's you have to show ID to vote. Tomorrow it's show ID to buy groceries. Next week it's show ID with a proper Registration *i.e. church affiliation, party or similar* to drive from one town to the next.

Other places have been down this route of requiring ID for everything. It's called fascism and it's a great way to ensure that the ones you don't like are harassed. Today it's harassing the ones who MIGHT be illegal immigrants. Tomorrow it's about harassing the ones who MIGHT vote liberal.

[Gormy Cuss]

50. I'm old, I play by the rules, and it's a big deal to me.

I have worked with confidential data professionally too and I know that once the info is available in a machine readable format it can be used in many unintended ways. That alone would make me leery of mandatory IDs.

I also know that there are a great many people in this country who are eligible to vote who neither the free time nor the money to obtain a voter ID just to let other people pretend that showing an ID card somehow enhances voter verification.

Requiring IDs won't do anything other than add one more roadblock to voter participation. I can opt to be a permanent absentee voter in my state. I have heard of children or care attendants voting for addled seniors or temporarily disabled adults. No photo ID required. I can buy a very good, official looking ID on the street for a few hundred bucks and present myself to vote under the name of someone who moved. Those are just two ways of circumventing voter ID requirements that occur to me off the top of my head. If I were a crook, I'd probably think of a few more too. Meanwhile all the honest people are asked to show IDs every time they turn around and are led to believe it makes one bit of difference.

The real issue isn't voter fraud -- it's election fraud. Ballot boxes that fall off the truck, programming errors that fail to record votes for certain candidates, etc. That's where the focus should be.

[Catchawave]

62. Photo id's

...aren't hard work, y'all. Geesh.

[CottonBear]

69. You don't live in GA where is is hard for the poor and elderly to get one.

Even the mayor of Atlanta had a difficult time getting her elderly mother a photo ID.

There are DMV offices in only 1/3 of the counties in the largest state east of the MS River and those offices (State Patrol stations) are in rural areas with no pulbic transit access.

[Jai4WKC08]

38. Not be required, because...

Right wrong or indifferent, the FACT is that an ID requirement will keep WAY more poor people from the polls than affluent ones. And that's bad for both Democrats and democracy.

[McCamy Taylor]

41. 40% think Photo IDs are good??? This is a POLL TAX, Dudes!!!!

You guys must be from the North East, right? You have no experience with Jim Crow or the many tricks that southern segregationists used after the Voting Rights Act became law in order to keep up their old racist ways. Photo ID laws are passed when affluent whites want to keep minorities and poor people from voting. White people at the polls will never be asked to produce a photo ID. They will be quietly ushered through. Blacks will have their IDs examined upside down, rightside up. They will be told "That isnt you!"

If the state requires an official ID with a fee sttached like Georgia tried to do, then it really is a Poll Tax. And in a southern state, where a lot of poor people and minorities fear the government, there are people who will decide not to vote rather than come into contact with a state agent in order to get their picture taken and their identity processed for an ID, especially since Repubs will start rumors that when you show up to get your ID the police will do checks for outstanding warrants,child support ect. and arrest you on the spot if they find anything. Plus even if felons can vote in your state, there will be rumors that if you try to get an ID and you have any kind of criminal record, even an arrest record, they will arrest you.

Get a clue!

Every stumbling block thrown up on the way to the voting booth obstructs the poor and the minorities more than it does the affluent and the white, because the former groups are more afraid and feel more vunerable.

[niccolos_smile]

42. Some agree with photo i.d., but not the method...

Take me for instance. I think a photo i.d. is a good idea, but as has been noted, not everyone has a photo i.d.

A way to find out what the objective of these laws is is to put a photo on the registration card when a person registers. There are some logistics to work out, such obtaining photos for people who reister by mail, but it is not the difficult, nor is it discriminatory.

That's how you can tell the true motives behind the people proposing these types of laws: if they truly want to counter voter fraud, or if they just want to prevent some people from voting.

In the Texas House, a similar bill came up. The rationale behind the bill was that voter registration cards were being stolen from mail boxes and then the theif was using them to vote, so photo i.d. was required. However, they made some exceptions for people who didn't have photo i.d.'s: bring two proofs of address, such as bills. But, a theif could just as easily take the bills as the voter registration card, and how many people carry their bills on them?

That whole thing was a bunch of malarky, and when a Democrat tried to amend the bill to do what I just suggested, the amendment was killed.

[Sapere aude]

44. The harm of non citizens voting is much less than the harm of citizens not

being able to vote. What you do is similar to the patriot act. Lose some freedom in order to be safer. I think the price is not worth the protection. Also if repubs are for it, it must be a way for them to hang onto power.

[sandnsea]

46. I agree fake ballots take NO ID. n/t

[treestar]

49. Big brother, big brother

The control freaks should get counseling.

[CottonBear]

51. In GA, many urban & rural poor, minorites and elderly have no photo ID

These people don't have drivers licenses, government employee ID, college or school IDs or passports.
Not only have they not traveled abroad, many have never left the immediate area or traveled out of state. (I've known people like this.)

GA has over 156 counties and only one third have DVM stations. Most DVM stations (State Patrol offices) are in rural areas with no acccess to pulbic transit.

In my blue GA city, there is no way for the poor, elderly, disabled and carless to reach the DVM station without paying huge taxi fees or bumming a ride to the next county. (here used to be a satellite DVM station in a local supermarket but R-Gov. Sonny Perdue closed it.)

The ID for non-drivers costs money and is only available at the DVM station.

The Repubs are supposed to make IDs avaialble for free (otherwise it's a poll tax) but the state ID van hasn't made it to most communities.

In short, you have to prrove your Georgia residency when you register to vote. Your name is on the voter list along with your address. Showing a utility bill with one's name and address is allowed for ID.

[The Wielding Truth]

55. Ask how all illegal aliens got all those jobs without photo id and ss#?

[CottonBear]

58. They may have fake SS cards (no pictures) but believe me, they don't vote.

I live in GA. The illegals do not go into the county couthouses and register to vote. They could be deported because they would reveal themsleves to be illegal to the government.

They don't have the proper documents to prove citizenship. Most of the women don't work or drive or have cars. They have no papers at all. Only the men have fake papers.

[Bjorn Against]

56. Not everyone has an ID

I did not get a photo ID until I was 21 (I am 28 now). I was still able to get a job without a photo ID. There are many low income people who are eligible to vote but do not have photo identification, and it can easily take six weeks to get a photo ID. If someone loses their photo ID should they lose their voting rights? You also have to remember there is a fee to get a photo ID card, and that could be considered a poll tax making it unconstitutional.

There is quite simply no evidence of widespread voter fraud as a result of people voting without identification. I would not have a problem with making people present some type of identification if there were steps in place to make sure no legitimate voters were turned away, but I have seen no proposals that would not disenfranchise many citizens.

[Catchawave]

66. Everyone should have a photo i.d.....

EVERYONE. This is not about big brother or poll tax, or whatever blather stated here, it's about protecting personal privacy AND your RIGHTS dammit. You can't, or haven't been able too? get on a plane without a photo i.d. since 9-11. Geesh.

On Edit...or a train?

[McCamy Taylor]

67. There are people too poor to fly, but they are entitled to vote.

[primative1]

76. Yawn ...

Do they draw social security? Do they ever visit a medical center?
I think its some of us here that dont have a clue about poverty. Maybe there is some town in the ozarks where people just drift around clueless but poverty and social services go hand in hand most places and you wont get those services without ID.
Sh*t, I've even heard that they would be willing to pay for the ID should they find someone who actually doesnt have one AND to be honest, if you could find someone that isolated from society ... I am not certain I would want such a person to be cancelling my vote ... would they likey to even read newspapers or afford a radio or TV? How would such a person decide who to support?

[CottonBear]

77. With all due respect sir, those are not Democratic ideals or positions.

I have, in the past, interviewed door to door, the entire populations of three small rural towns in NE GA for purposes of obtaining confidential demographic and income information for a CDBG grant application for a public water system.

There are people who can't read (many more than you would think), single mothers without educations, people who are disabled, people who don't even have a high school education, people are very elderly and people who have no hope for a future because they are in permanently in debt to a small town rental property owner and used car dealer. There were people who did not know their own address and I had to read it off of their utility bill that someone else paid for them. These are people with no bank accounts at all not to mention credit cards. They have no private health insurance or retirement accounts. They live in an area which is up to 30 miles form the nearest hospital or clinic. They live up to 50 miles from the nearest DMV station. There is no public transit at all except in Georgia's major cities. Only a few GA counties have public transit and that is only for their white citizens.

These poor and minority people are black and white. They are, for the most part, good and decent people. They are our low-come workers (fast food, chicken plants...), our neighbors, our relatives and our fellow citizens. We owe them, at the very least, our respect and the right to cast their vote with out being suppressed by racist tactics.

I am proud to have met these people and I am proud to support their constitutional right to vote.

[CottonBear]

70. The poor in GA don't drive much less fly. Many have never left GA

There is only one Amtrack train that comes through GA and it's not a commuter train.

Only a few large cities have pulbic transit, leaving vast areas without public transit (the blacks and poor might use it to get to the white areas you know. :sarcasm: )

[McCamy Taylor]

71. Some people in the US (and even DU) are clueless about poverty in America

[CottonBear]

72. Tell me about it. Poverty is still a terrible problem in the USA.

:(

[ulysses]

75. it's distressing to see support for this law on DU.

:argh:

[CottonBear]

79. I am appalled at the support for voter suppression here on DU.

Hi Uly! I hope all is well with you and your wife and darling baby boy! :hi:

[ulysses]

80. we are all well.

Hizzoner is on the verge of walking on his own and today was the last day of summer school. Hope you and Mr. CB are the same! :hi:

[CottonBear]

84. He's about to walk! Wow! That is so neat!

He'll be zooming around and keeping y'all on the move very soon! He'll start climbing too! :)

You'll have to post some new pictures in your journal when he walks! Take care and enjoy the summer!

[primative1]

74. Out on a limb but Yes to ID

I never understood this one but I agree with your basic premise. To function, even marginaly in this society there is just no way you could get by without an ID. I have to admit I was rather surprised when I voted last time out and was just asked to provide a name and address. That kind of security doesnt even allow you to buy a pack of cigarettes but vote ... sure step on up ???
We need to be ELIMINATING potetntial for fraud, not appearing to condone it. Show your ID and move along. Its no big thing and its the responsible thing.
Who do you know that doesnt have an ID? Come on now ...

[CottonBear]

78. Sir: You are out of touch with the reality of poverty in America.

If you had ever actually met the poor (rural and urban) you would know that, in fact, an individual can function without a photo ID and tht many people do function without a Photo ID.

edit: See my post #77.

[BlueCaliDem]

81. I voted "Photo ID NOT Required" because why should there be a

..."one ID fits all" rule, when America herself isn't "one size fits all" age-wise, educational-wise, literacy-wise, financially-wise, and geographically-wise.

It not only changes from state-to-state, but also, county-to-county, city-to-city...you get my drift.

Besides, I seriously doubt any illegal/undocumented people go and vote!

However, piss them off enough, then their American-born, LEGAL children will certainly make the party that goes at their family aggressively, pay at election time.

Ask ex-Governor Pete Wilson how Prop 187 in California ended his political career!