Voter ID Laws Supress Voters
A majority of those who voted in the poll last week foolishly think voter ID laws are about preventing fraud. The real motivation is to keep those who typically vote Democratic from voting:
A disabled woman in Travis County was turned away from voting because she couldn’t afford to pay her parking tickets. An IHOP dishwasher from Mercedes can’t afford the cost of getting a new birth certificate, which he would need to obtain the special photo ID card required for voting. A student at a historgically black college in Marshall, who registered some of her fellow students to vote, won’t be able to cast a ballot herself because her driver’s license isn’t from Texas and the state wouldn’t accept her student identification card. (Ginsburg Was Right: Texas’ Extreme Voter ID Law Is Stopping People From Voting)
A couple more examples from Wisconsin, via the ACLU:
Ruthelle Frank is a resident of Brokaw, Wisconsin, where she has served on the Village Board since 1996. She was born at her home in Brokaw in 1927. She is an eligible voter registered to vote in Wisconsin. She has no accepted form of photo ID under the photo ID law and lacks a certified copy of her birth certificate, which she needs to prove citizenship to the Wisconsin DMV. Though she has never had a birth certificate in her possession, the state Register of Deeds has a record of her birth and can produce a certified copy of her birth certificate, but at a cost. The record on file, however, has an incorrect spelling of her maiden name: Wedepohl, and is consequently an unacceptable form of identification. The process to correct the birth certificate is lengthy and costly, with some reports suggesting it might require $200 or more. She has voted in every election since 1948 and intends to vote in Wisconsin again next year.
Eddie Lee Holloway Jr.’s birth certificate says Eddie Junior Holloway and as a result he is no longer able to vote in the state of Wisconsin. DMV employees tell him that his birth certificate is an unacceptable form of ID because the name on it reads “Eddie Junior Holloway,” due to a decades-old clerical error. It doesn’t matter to the DMV that his father’s name — “Eddie Lee Holloway” — is printed on his birth certificate, and that Eddie has a Social Security Card and an expired Illinois photo ID both bearing the name “Eddie L Holloway Jr”. Eddie says, “I never miss voting” and has rarely missed a chance to cast a ballot since he was 18. He worked in Illinois for years as a cook at the airport and Claire’s Family Restaurant, and he cooked in nursing homes too. Years of heavy lifting and hard work left him severely disabled, unemployed, and homeless — in that order. He now lives with his mother in Milwaukee but cannot secure the disability benefits and medical attention he so badly needs due to a lack of photo ID.
You might think it’s no big deal if a handful of people are inconvenienced or turned away to cut down on the massive fraud that takes place. The reality is the reverse, thousands are turned away because of a few cases of fraud:
Election fraud happens. But ID laws are not aimed at the fraud you’ll actually hear about. Most current ID laws (Wisconsin is a rare exception) aren’t designed to stop fraud with absentee ballots (indeed, laws requiring ID at the polls push more people into the absentee system, where there are plenty of real dangers). Or vote buying. Or coercion. Or fake registration forms. Or voting from the wrong address. Or ballot box stuffing by officials in on the scam. In the 243-page document that Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel filed on Monday with evidence of allegedly illegal votes in the Mississippi Republican primary, there were no allegations of the kind of fraud that ID can stop. (A comprehensive investigation of voter impersonation finds 31 credible incidents out of one billion ballots cast)
Also see Jim Crow Returns: Millions of minority voters threatened by electoral purge.
Here are the embarrassing poll results:
Q: Photo ID Voter Laws…
1) Prevent voter fraud 132 [67.69%]
2) Disenfranchise voters 54 [27.69%]
3) Make no difference 7 [3.59%]
4) Unsure/no opinion 2 [1.03%]
— Steve Patterson
I wonder out loud if the embarrassment shouldn’t be on your part? Never before has your personal agenda, as expressed in any of your blogs, been so obvious or comical, from my perspective. I am in my mid- 30s, proudly grew up in a very republican area of the country. We were not wealthy. We supported ourselves, though, without welfare, food stamps, rent-subsidies. And I’m sure my parents practiced birth control so they wouldn’t overpopulate the neighborhood. (Come to think of it, maybe more parents should practice birth control!) My father didn’t own a car until I was 19 (my first year in college, and I enrolled around 900 miles from home so I didn’t even get to drive it!) Didn’t have a driver’s license anyway! ) So I’m proof that not all republicans are rich, just as not all democrats are poor. And I wonder out loud about some of those dems who claim to be “poor”. Is there a fresh fifth of Jack Black in their cabinet? A carton of Cool Filters on top of the refrigerator? Do they ever pass a beverage machine without dropping a buck? Are they known on a first-name basis at the corner pub or club? Certainly not all! But I wonder how many are guilty of being poor because they are fiscally ignorant (or worse, fiscally irresponsible), or personally selfish, or just consider themselves to be “entitled”– because someone has always been there to bail them out and make them feel entitled! Something “in me” screams that each of us can usually afford those things that we feel are important. How much of a hardship is the gas/transportation to get a FREE voter ID? (Is it more costly than a trip to Dirt Cheap for cigarettes or to the liquor store, or to 7-11 for overpriced beer? Or to travel to the demonstration in Ferguson? Or to visit the welfare office in order to keep current and those benefits flowing? ) Come on! Asking someone to devote 2 or 3 or even 4 hours, ONE TIME IN A LIFETIME, to get a photo ID is not asking too much! In the home town of my first 18 years, those poor former neighbors didn’t and still don’t complain about voter photo ID requirements (which exists in ALABAMA). And they too were forced to “travel” a certain distance in order to acquire their photo ID. And referencing your examples above, disabled or not, a person who cannot afford to pay parking tickets should simply park legally. PERIOD! Simple! I’ve been driving almost 14 years, and I received ONE parking ticket in my lifetime. Why? If the sign says, NO PARKING,……then guess what? And in your second example, what does your mentioning of “historical black college.” got to do with anything other than to possibly endear and expand an audience? Are you expecting us to tear up at just another example of how blacks are singled out and oppressed and disrespected? I assume the gal in your example is black, since she attends a historical black college, but how does that reality make her less responsible to keep her personal ID up-to-date? I have little sympathy for those who claim to be oppressed or limited because they are “poor”. If you’re poor, you go to work. Simple. Now to keep a job, you have to be punctual and drug free and awake. Maybe this is too much to expect from certain “poor” people that you might know and over whom you hover and constantly try to “protect”. If you grow up poor and don’t like it, you vow to yourself that you’re going to apply yourself to academics and/or hard work so that you can improve your status. It’s not easy….for a poor white person especially. With affirmative action (which is still going strong today), if a black person wants an education, he can easily get it!! He likely won’t have to work evenings and weekends for tuition and food! Uncle Barack will just hand him the cash! Schools tend to open their doors WIDE to a black man! Sometimes even wider to a black woman! Schools even tend to bend the rules toward blacks, relax the standards in order to be more “welcoming.”
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Man has come of age! And that includes poor men, middle-class men and rich men. They have to learn to accept responsibility for their own actions, prioritize and stick with their priorities. It’s up to them; it’s not up to Uncle Barack. And finally, your comments in today’s blog, in my opinion, are disappointing, naive, certainly pandering, and almost appear to be self-aggrandizing.
The voter fraud that exists won’t be reduced with photo IDs, they’ll just prevent legitimate voters from exercising their rights.
Mark isn’t wrong here…you obviously have an opinion on the matter. Nothing wrong with that however, this is your personal blog about the issues you see effecting the community.
Yeah and you are not responsible for your own existence. You have no idea what you are talking about, you merely spout the usual talking points. We should cut through the crap, voting and various voting suppression methods are evident. Not everyone has had a comfortable middle class existence like you have had. The only fraud is the efforts to restrict voting. I guess gerrymandering is imaginary also? Steal the vote much? Uniform rules are needed to be sure, but not that begins to cut out the elderly, without transportation or money. I think Bernie Sanders has the best idea, make election day a national holiday, and make sure everyone can vote, not block votes through more and more regulations.
And your Uncle Barack comment more than anything shows your complete racism and prejudice. Make education free, then we can talk, you have absolutely no idea of what you are talking about, you are the one pandering and naive, honestly you don’t have a clue about what you are talking about.
Want to tell me about the hard working people of Alabama again? the state with the highest input of government money in the nation to support their lazy asses (or they second)?
Your arrogance is the problem, you somehow think you are better than everyone because you’ve got yours. It’s a good thing you are not black, the results may have been different. Oh yes, please tell me about your black comrades who rose to success.
You are so blind you cannot see the blatant discrimination and corruption that has been brought to the forefront with the Micheal Brown killing. I guess to you responsibility is stealing as much as you can from the poor. Meanwhile buying the government and stealing from the government also (all legal of course, bribes are legal donations, don’t you know?)
You are a real piece of work. A troll maybe?
Your response is classic “Pavlov’s pooch.” I could have written it. To correct your assertions and assumptions: 1) I am responsible for my existence. There were no hand-outs, hand-ups or (especially) “holdups” in my past. 2) I didn’t grow up comfortable “middle class.” Far from it. 3) Any ballot stuffing constitutes voter fraud. It takes wide-spread stuffing to impact elections results, but it takes only one fraudulent vote to destroy the credibility of the electoral system. When the architects of the system allow for even a single fraudulent vote to be submitted and counted, the system is flawed and should be changed. If in my work I under-size even a single beam/column connection, the building’s stability is compromised and could collapse. 4) Why should we make education “free”? Who’s “we”? Government? The problem today is that government makes too much “free”! And doing so has destroyed and continues to destroy personal initiative among its citizens. Look around! It’s too prevalent. 5) I “got mine” because I worked for it. I PAY to send my boys to school. I pay for their books and computers, for their transportation to and from, for all their extra-curricular activities, for their lunches, etc. And no one gave me my education–my tuition, my books and supplies, room and board. While in undergraduate school, I worked 3 hours a night cleaning dog and cat cages and feeding the animals in Indiana, 3 hours on Saturday, then the same on Sunday–of each week. I stayed in the area during the summer months working at the animal facility at night so I wouldn’t lose the job. And during the summer months, I also worked (when work was available) as a laborer during the day on construction sites around South Bend to earn tuition and room and board. I held similar jobs in Urbana/Champaign when I worked there on my master’s. No government loans, handouts or “hand-ups”. My point? My education and future weren’t handed to me, and the ride wasn’t free. I really dislike “FREE”. For some reason, I suspect you don’t! I won’t even cash in a free soda coupon at Burger King!! 6) I steal nothing from anyone–poor or rich. Don’t want to, and I DON’T HAVE TO! 7) With two elderly parents, I visit Alabama frequently during the year, depending on their health. When I’m in the states, I have lots of time on my hands–and I find this blog sometimes interesting–especially when its topic is one that can potentially undermine our entire economic system and social structure. This is one of those topics. Arf, Arf!
Do you think people in poverty want to be poor? You hold yourself up as a beacon of light while dissing anyone who doesn’t agree with you. You don’t understand how the cycle of poverty influences whole communities, and if you are black you are further locked into the status quo, often without access to jobs and education. Most of the people you are criticizing work hard also.
Free education is about insuring citizens equal access to success. Countries like Finland and Germany offer free education. I worked while I was in college too, but the real question is how to build a better society going forward.
It is amusing (and sad) how you rail about people who you consider beneath you, yet you are not willing to help find paths to success for those same people.
Your beliefs are what is undermining our entire economic system and social structure. Your only solution appears to be, screw the poor, let them figure it out, I got mine.
It’s a solution that is completely oblivious to what is happening in society.
Except within their own community, being black in many respects places black individuals in a position of advantage. Within the black community, however, being black tends to place black individuals in the line of danger. (God I wish I could understand why this happens!) This is the norm. And there’s nothing that will be done to reverse this trend until the effort comes from within. Will that ever happen? It doesn’t appear that the black community is as concerned about this reality as they are about promoting the myth that the world should overlook St. Michael Brown’s behavior just prior to his encounter with police and his apparent behavior while being questioned by police. Isn’t it easier to point the finger at the white community, place the blame on “whitie”?
If a black individual wants to gain admission to a college or university, he can easily gain acceptance just by completing a few forms. Money will begin to flow toward that individual to cover costs of tuition, books, living expenses. In order to get a college EDUCATION, however, that person has to apply himself. The effort requires focus, determination and sacrifice: giving up the expensive cars, fewer evenings at the clubs, sitting focused in front of a desk instead of a TV, getting out of bed day-after-day to attend class and labs. Government has generally discouraged a protestant work ethic in the black community by offering monetary incentives and rewards encouraging continuance of the baby-momma phenomenon, by generally failing to prosecute deadbeat daddies within the black community and, instead, by letting the taxpayer to pick up the tab.
How long are blacks going to blame their problems on “whitie”? They conveniently (obviously) fail to look at other ethnic groups whose hard work and personal sacrifices have placed them in powerful and meaningful positions in society. Why is it that Japanese, Chinese, BOSNIAN, German and Russian immigrants can integrate after time…..and African Americans cannot? Who hated the Japanese more than the Americans after the war? Is the personal behavior of blacks a factor here?
My sister attended the U of I, lived in an apartment above Jimmie John’s sandwich shop on-campus. One evening around 8 PM she was walking home from the music practice building and noticed a group of young black men assembled in front of the apartment’s exterior door. She thought about just walking away and coming back later, but then she reconsidered and decided to walk among them to her door. She was assaulted, robbed (of $7.00) and ended up in the local emergency room Convince me, please, that this same scenrio would likely have played out if the group of boys had been white. (Sorry, I just don’t agree!)
Government has been providing handouts to the black community far too long. It’s time that the government provide them with a hoe and seeds, teach them (again) how to plant the seeds, then stand back and let them eat or starve.
I am a republican, and (also) I don’t have a socialistic bone in my body.
I’m sorry to hear you are so closed minded and dogmatic. For myself I believe in small government, but also in humanity and society. I also believe in the constitution, where in the preamble it says we should promote the general welfare
Personally I look at all ideas with critical thinking, applying creativity to new ideas, looking at different possibilities. I am not comfortable with labels, as you apparently are. The poet Gary Snyder has said that most of philosophy is convincing people that the cage you were tricked into entering is the right one.
If we take your statement that you don’t have a socialistic bone in your body at face how do you get around? You know with the socialistic roads, sidewalks, airports and transit systems? I’m guessing you don’t bother with the socialistic police and fire departments and have your own protection. I guess you tell your parents not to use social security and medicare, you know, socialism, it is far better that you, their child, support them. Hell even the insurance industry is socialistic in its structure, so I guess you must be self insured.
You get the idea (or maybe not).
Quite a man you are, completely divorced from society.
Then you say you are a Republican, well they don’t care about the working people of America any more than Democrats, only worse. They are often hypocrites, saying ok to government largesse to themselves and their friends, but rejecting help for the poor
In fact the wealthy are the biggest welfare recipients, that is the biggest problem in the US, not making sure the poor and needy don’t become completely destitute.
You realize of course Jesus was a socialist. I guess this puts you into an non religious category, say along with the devil. I pity your children as they grow up in your world of hate and bigotry.
By the way to plant seeds you need a plot of land, where is that coming from? Good Luck, you are so rigid and inflexible there is no hope in your world.
Do I think that people in poverty want to be poor? Yes and no. Being poor sucks if you’re born into it, but ending up poor can be, and often is, the direct result of poor choices. It doesn’t matter if you drop out of high school, for whatever reason, forgoing that “free” education, or choosing a “fun”, but unmarketable, degree in college. Where I work, now, we have a point system, for attendance, and it’s amazing the number of people who end up being terminated just for missing work. If you have a job, show up! Kids are expensive, and being a single parent is tough – it’s a choice, and being a young, single, mother pretty much guarantees living much closer to, if not in, poverty, for the rest of your life. Then, there’s the whole issue of addictive choices, things that impact both disposable income and employment – tobacco, alcohol, illegal drugs, food, gambling, sex, visible body mods, etc. – getting started is a choice, and kicking an addiction is a bitch. And, finally, if you don’t want to do the time, don’t do the crime – paying fines and doing time (and having to disclose it on job applications) is another great way to end up in poverty.
Am I perfect? No! Have I always made the right decisions? Absolutely, not! But my parents instilled a good work ethic in me, and I’m more than willing to work to get to where I’m fairly comfortable in life. I’ve been self-employed and I’ve worked entry level jobs after being laid off in the recession. If I have a job, I show up, I don’t make excuses just because I want a day off or “don’t feel like going in, today”. I work with people who were born poor, who even made some bad choices, who even were born black, but who are now busting their butts, working hard and getting promoted. Life ain’t fair, and it’s easy to make excuses, but government isn’t the only answer. If it were, we’d be living in a socialistic paradise like Cuba, where health care is free and, supposedly pretty good, as is education, but there is no upward mobility. Life is, and should be, full of choices – we just need to accept that choices do have consequences . . .
I am not saying eliminate choices, America is fucked up, that is the bottom line. Look at any metrics and America has been falling after being leader in many categories for years. Life ain’t fair, but until we bring the wealthy welfare queens under control America will continue to decline. People work their ass off, it is the corporations controlling the agenda through the bought congress, state legislatures and even local politics. Yes lets donate many more thousands to Wal Mart so Stan Kroneke can make many more millions, where is your fucking outrage about the wealthy? It is only working people you pick on.
And yes life is not fair, when you own the government you can do what you want. Corruption is all I see, almost everywhere, with few exceptions. American ideals are dying so a few can live large over everyone else.