States requiring picture ID, proof of residence for voting

[Jack Sprat]

At one time before the generation of homeless Vietnam vets began dying from lack of healthcare or nutrition, they comprised at least 50% of people living on the street. I don't know what the percentage is now, but homeless Iraq veterans are now appearing. What kind of utility bill or proof of residence can they possibly provide? Would your state deny them a vote because of their station in life? At what point do we decide that a person is denied the citizenship opportunities that the rest of us enjoy?

I understand that convicted felons are not allowed to vote, but can we assume that Scooter Libby, Gordon Liddy, Oliver North, and Charles Colson are also sitting it out on election day? I wonder.

[lynnertic]

1. Perhaps a DD-214 and the address of the place they get their mail could do the trick

but I agree that this is a bad practice.

What happens if you live with your folks or roomates if you have no utility bill in your own name?

Regarding Oliver North et. al., does a presidential pardon restore your right to vote?

[Jack Sprat]

4. Think of those who don't have a driver's license, for

whatever reason. I don't know about pardons restoring the right to vote. It shouldn't. That discriminates against people, who just happen not to be tight with the President of the US.

[smalll]

6. This kind of stuff really is bad -

we really are becoming Auto Nation now. What this would mean for most people is that if you don't drive, you can't vote. The only "picture IDs" that get accepted generally are drivers' licenses or passports, and I don't think most Americans have passports. (Even passports aren't always accepted - I don't drive, but was in Maine earlier this summer on vacation. Well, it seemes that in Bar Harbor, someone is cracking down on underage smoking, because I was often asked for proof of age to buy cigarettes. And I'm in my late 30s! There was one clerk at a convenience store that wouldn't sell them to me because I had no ID on me, so the next time I went back to that store, I brought my passport with me. What did the clerk say? "Oh no, we can't take passports as proof!" )

[lynnertic]

2. The irony here is that a voter registration card used to be proof of residence.

In civic disaster plans, it used to be that if disaster struck an area that ended up being cordoned off, that only people who could prove residence were allowed in, to prevent looting, and one method of proving this was a voter registration card.

I don't know how it is now, probably all effed up given what we saw in New Orleans.

[1620rock]

3. In the US Customs and Border Protection service we used to

accept a voter registration card as proof of citizenship. But no more, anyone can get one now no questions asked.

[MH1]

5. "no questions asked"???

Hmmm, I have never seen a voter registration form that didn't ask questions.

I am pretty sure that all of them ask "are you a US citizen?" and "will you be 18 or over at the time of the next election?" in some variation.

Very interesting that you should raise that point.

[Jack Sprat]

7. Neither have I.

It seems to me that one of those boxes carries the penalty for fraud, too.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. except Oregon

we vote by mail.

[AlCzervik]

9. i was only asked for a picture id one time, i moved to Ca. and registered to vote so

the very first time i went to my polling place they asked for it, since then they have never asked again and we here in Ca. vote a lot.

[twilliams82]

10. SORRY

Its meant to keep convicted felons and illegal aliens from voting.

If you are not allowed to vote cause you comited a felony or are a illegal alien too bad.

How would we react if the republicans got tons of illegals to vote for them in turn for amnesty???

TW