Voter ID in Missouri

[proud2BlibKansan]

Picture imperfect

02/16/2006

Republican leaders in the Missouri Legislature are fast-tracking an onerous bill requiring voters to present a photo identification card before they're allowed to cast a ballot.

The stated purpose: to cut down on election fraud. The likely effect: Many would-be voters are going to be turned away.

The photo ID requirement is part of a broader package of election law changes voted out of Senate committee on Wednesday. It could gain Senate passage by week's end and House approval next week. Republican Gov. Matt Blunt has vowed to sign it. That would leave some 170,000 Missourians -- the number of registered voters who don't have drivers' licenses -- about eight months to get one. Or, they could get some other recognized federal or state photo ID, such as a state-issued ID card, a passport, or a special voter's ID card.

It's not coincidental that most of the voters who don't have drivers licenses happen to be poor residents of inner city St. Louis or Kansas City, or are older residents in rural counties. Urban voters traditionally vote Democratic. Older rural voters bore the brunt of harsh Medicaid cuts that Mr. Blunt and the Legislature rammed through last year.

more . . .
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/editorialcommentary/story/89F5AF59BF595A1186257117000FDE59?OpenDocument

[greenisin]

1. Is our party going to let us down again?

Why don't they fight harder against these voter intimidation rules? I talked to a state rep here a couple of years ago after the Repukes tried to force through one of these horrific things, and he said the party had never talked to him about this issue. Our party should keep this right in the front of the discussion. Not allowing people to vote is wrong. WTF good does a party that calls itself the Democratic Party do if they don't fight to maintain a democracy? Sorry, but I've just been really upset about this issue for a long time.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. The lawsuit has already been written

and will be filed the minute this law is signed by the governor.

[Jayhawk Lib]

3. It is not unreasonable.

I think that it should be a federal law that voters should have a photo id. Voting is a very important function and it is not too much to ask for positive id.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Yes it is unreasonable on several levels:

1. As the editorial mentions, this will be a hardship for voters who are poor and lack transportation. I live in KC. We have a horrible public transportation system here. Getting around town without a car is a hardship. Many of the poor urban residents here do not ever leave their immediate neighborhood.

2. The drivers license offices issue these IDs. And Matt Blunt has been handing these franchise rights to his 'friends'. The only DL office in downtown KC is closed; the person who got the franchise has not yet decided whether to reopen it. And even if opened, it is miles away for many non drivers in the city.

3. Rural poor have to go many miles to the nearest DL office to get these IDs.

4. The ID will cost $35. That is a poll tax.

5. There is not a voter fraud problem in MO. If it ain't broke, why fix it?

4. When poor people don't vote, Republicans win.

[Jayhawk Lib]

7. Positive ID needed......

I do not like the way they check you in the book when you vote. Seeing how it works in Kansas I am very adamant that there should be positive id before you vote. I do not think that a photo id is too much to ask when it comes to a serious responsibility such as voting.

You need positive id when you file for your social security, when you apply for welfare, when you fly. Why not when you vote.

[stlsaxman]

28. I have never been asked for a photo ID in st louis.

I bring my election notification card and they check my signature to the one they have on file. I've even forgotten the notification before, they ask me for my address, have me sign the ledger and i can vote... ANYTHING ELSE IS AN UNDUE BURDEN!

Besides there were maybe 70 mis-cast ballots last election and Blunt is using that as an excuse for a $35.00 poll tax????? Fuck him.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. There is no photo ID required where I live in Kansas

I go to the polling place, give them my name and sign a printout of all the registered voters in my neighborhood. So I am the only one with my name and address who can cast a vote in my name. It works well. They do require a voter ID card (which is sent in the mail when you register) or a picture ID if it is the first time you have voted in that precinct. After that, you just sign in.

[Jayhawk Lib]

6. I live in Kansas.

I do not like the way they check you in the book when you vote. Seeing how it works in Kansas I am very adamant that there should be positive id before you vote. I do not think that a photo id is too much to ask when it comes to a serious responsibility such as voting.

You need positive id when you file for your social security, when you apply for welfare, when you fly. Why not when you vote.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. What's wrong with it?

No one else with my name can vote in my name. Works well. Why don't you like checking the book?

Social security and welfare involve $$. Makes sense that you need a photo ID for those. Homeland security dicates the ID when flying. That makes sense too. (Well, as much as any of the Homeland Security provisions make sense.)

Why force people to spend money on a voter ID? Do you understand what a poll tax is and that it is illegal?

Do you know anyone who doesn't have a driver's license?

[Jayhawk Lib]

9. I only know one who does not have a dl.

He is blind but he has a photo id. Voting involves $$ also. Look what this administration has cost us in $$.

I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this one. Voting is a very important responsibility and voters should be positively identified...

[evlbstrd]

10. I want the votes to count, first.

Kansas City, MO is very close to switching to Diebold machines. That means no verifiable paper ballots on easily hacked machines. Voter fraud is a trivial issue in Missouri and rarely involves ID. I sign a book to vote, too. I like it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Do you think there are a bunch of folks lined up ouside your polling place

claiming to be evlbstrd and wanting to vote in your name?

Oh wow I just came up with a great idea for entertaining myself on the next election day. :evilgrin:

[evlbstrd]

27. It hasn't happened in the 25 years I've voted in this precinct.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. I know lots of people who don't have DLs.

I work with the poor. Lots and lots of them don't have photo IDs. They don't have DLs because they can't afford to own a car. They have ID - they have birth certificates and SS cards, but no photo ID. And if they have to have a photo ID to vote, they just won't vote. Voter ID disenfranchises voters. We can't impose a middle class standard of always carrying a photo ID on the poor; that is not how they live.

Disenfranchising voters will cost the Democrats votes. That is why you should fight voter ID, if for no other reason.

[FreedomAngel82]

17. It's a poll tax isn't it?

And having a poll tax is illegal.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. Yes it is

but shhh don't tell the repukelicans. I can't wait for them to look like fools over this one.

[SoCalDem]

20. It's high time the democratic party helped them "change the way they live"

by GETTING THEM the ID they need.. There is TIME..but if brazillions of dollars gets wasted fighting a "done deal" and the time ticks away in the meantime..well.. we know what the outcome will be , don;t we?

GET THESE PEOPLE REGISTERED AND GET THEM A PHOTO ID..

Costco can do it right there on the spot..The registrar's office is the perfect place to issue the IDs.

If the poor people choose to not carry it except on voting day, then so be it// But surely a GOTV drive cwould benefit by making sure the folks they sign up actually get to vote..

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. That's not part of this bill

I understand what you are saying and I agree - to a point. But this bill in MO is almost a done deal. Too late to amend it. It says state issued photo IDs, which are only available at DL offices. And they cost $35.

As for the Costco idea - been there, done that in MO. HUGE scandal. You used to be able to get your DL and car registration at grocery stores and WalMarts. Then one of the franchisees ripped off the state. So they got strict about making sure the DL offices were state run only. Now they are franchised again, but still not allowed in stores.

[SoCalDem]

24. Sounds like the MO democratic party leaders better get cracking

and figure out a way to contact registered voters.. The ones who don't have ID, should be helped to get it..ASAP.. There's bound to be a way to do it..

Make a STINK.. See if a paper will ruin a story about how poor people are being charged $35.00 apiece to cast a ballot..

if the state is going to require a state issued ID, then they better darned well PAY for it.. Call the ACLU?

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. ACLU is on it

Hopefully they will be successful in getting this law thrown out.

[FreedomAngel82]

15. Right

We do that too here in Tennessee. My Mom knows the people pretty well by face since she's been voting at our polling place a long time now so they know us. She always takes her ID in anyways just in case.

[FreedomAngel82]

13. But you do have other forms of ID

My brother couldn't find his ID and he doesn't have a licenses and he used his voting card and his SS card.

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. No picture on either one

So he wouldn't be able to vote in MO if this law passes.

[FreedomAngel82]

12. I can't stand this!

Isn't this illegal?

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. The ACLU thinks so

Hopefully, they will be able to stop this poll tax.

[usregimechange]

21. THIS BILL WILL RAISE TAXES. Simple way to destroy this...

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. Write, email and call Jeff City

It is pretty much a done deal, from what a rep told me.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. From Representative Sara Lampe:

On Feb. 15 the Senate Elections Committee approved SB1014 which would require voters to produce a photo ID in order to vote. I agree with many opponents and our Secretary of State, whose job is to organize and run elections, in believing that such a law would disenfranchise many low-income, rural, minority, elderly and disabled voters who don't have drivers licenses, passports, or state-issued non-driver IDs.

The bill makes numerous other changes in state election laws, changes not favored by the Secretary of State.

While this bill may seem harmless at first glance, it addresses an alleged problem that hardly exists in our state. It discards current rules to ensure that voting remains a right that all our citizens can enjoy. Restrictive voter identification policies - especially those that require state-issued photo ID-- stand to exclude millions of eligible voters.

As many as 10% of eligible voters do not have, and will not get, the identification required by stricter voter ID laws. ID requirements fall hardest on people who have traditionally faced barriers at the polls, barriers which we as a nation have proudly done away with. 36 percent of Georgians over age 75 do not have a driver's license. Fewer than 3 percent of Wisconsin students have driver's licenses listing their current address.

This is of great concern to rural Missourians. Our friends and family who don't drive, are elderly, don't have access to public transportation, or extra income for passports and state-approved non-driver's license IDs will lose access to voting. I count among them my own aunts and uncles in the hills and hollers of the Ozarks who would be excluded on election day.

Burdensome requirements are not justified by any serious or widespread problem. Existing laws already address voter fraud. The Help America Vote Act, HAVA, addresses misrepresentation at the polls and needed reforms such as cleaning the voter rolls.

http://www.greenecountydemocrats.org/story/2006/2/17/9510/77047