Very nice piece by Norman Ornstein on suggestions for a new voting regime:
Imagine an intersection with a long history of high-speed car crashes, injuries and fatalities. Authorities put up a traffic light and a speed camera — and the accidents and injuries plummet. A few years later, authorities declare “mission accomplished” and remove the light and speed camera. No surprise, the high-speed crashes and fatalities resume almost immediately.
This is the logic that animated Chief Justice John Roberts’s decision to fillet the Voting Rights Act and that had conservative pundits, including George F. Will, praising the act as they simultaneously exulted in its demise.
As Roberts undoubtedly knew, the chances are slim that our highly polarized Congress can reach agreement on a new formula for the Voting Rights Act (even if lawmakers did, the Roberts court may not accept it). But the decision in Shelby County v. Holder should serve as a springboard to something more ambitious: a drive for a new Voting Rights Act that would go beyond the scope of the original to make voting more universal and accessible to all eligible Americans.
However lawmakers resolve the issue of preclearance, a VRA 2.0 should also include:
●A separate federal ballot.
●A new voter registration regime
●Weekend Election Day.
●A Social Security card as a valid voter ID.
I don’t know that any of this will go anywhere but I think there’s real value in a daily national discussion of why conservatives don’t want people to vote. Meanwhile, conservatives are working hard on this issue. Here’s an example. This ridiculous political operative accused 200,000 Wisconsin voters of committing a felony based on absolutely nothing, and doesn’t seem to be aware of the state constitution in Wisconsin.
In an interview with Milwaukee’s ABC affiliate, the Romney campaign’s Wisconsin co-chair, state Sen. Alberta Darling (R), suggested that her candidate would have won Wisconsin but for the fact that the state’s voter ID law was declared unconstitutional by a state court:
HOST: Do you think photo ID would have made any difference in the outcome of this election?
DARLING: Absolutely, I think so. We’re looking at all different kinds of precincts and all sorts of same-day registrations and I know people will go “oh, we don’t have fraud and abuse in our elections,” but what can’t we have voter ID when the majority of the people in Wisconsin wanted it. We passed it. The governor signed it. Why should one judge in Dane County be able to hold it up?
Well, one judge or the state constitution. Whichever. What do you think she means by “all different kinds of precincts”? Some are better than others? Why not just say “voters”? This elected politician has a problem with some of the voters in her state.
You’ll recall that voter impersonation fraud relies on the idea that a person who is barred from voting actually impersonates (stands in for) a legitimate voter. Conservatives have never explained how these voter impersonation fraud criminals (200,000 in Wisconsin!) determine that the lawful voter won’t show up after them and try to vote, or why these voter impersonation fraud criminals are mysteriously clustered only in the urban areas conservatives lose. Milwaukee is Ground Zero for this epidemic of bad faith accusations and stupidity on voting. The voter impersonation fraud salespeople on the Right and in media have targeted individual voters in Milwaukee with wild accusations for at least a decade, so there’s a lot of information on voter impersonation fraud in Wisconsin. There is no voter impersonation fraud in Wisconsin.
Given events in Texas, and blatant attempts to suppress Latino voters in that state, I can predict with certainty where the next cluster of felonious voter-impersonators will appear. Texas. This crime will move south and west.
TooManyJens
What is the advantage of the separate federal ballot?
Also, nobody’s ever been able to explain to me why the system we have in Illinois (or at least where I live) isn’t good enough. You have to sign in when you show up to vote, and they check your signature against the document you signed when you registered. It’s simple and quick, there’s no confusion over what constitutes a valid ID, and unless you posit an army of forgers going around and trying to impersonate people, it’s adequately secure.
Eric U.
the real problem with voter impersonation is if the person showed up before you to vote. Never happens anyway
Omnes Omnibus
It should be understood that Alberta Darling has the intellectual capacity of Louis Gohmert.
Kay
@TooManyJens:
I loathe provisional ballots, it’s a mess and no one will admit it’s a mess, so I would do it for that reason alone. If we ever have an actual voting war, it will be over provisional ballots.
Jerzy Russian
To be fair, Sen. Darling is right: if all of the people who voted for the opponent did not vote, her candidate would have won.
TooManyJens
@Kay: Guess I should have RTFA, huh? :) Thanks.
feebog
Same day registration is a key element. We don’t have it in California, but it seems to me that if you are worried about voter ID, a same day registration requirement, which would include valid ID, would be a pretty good step. Also, too, voting over a weekend seems to be a good plan. Better yet, go with a complete mail in system, works in Oregon, and Washington seems to have experience little or no problems as they move in that direction.
schrodinger's cat
They are too shy too admit it, but this war on voters is a clear signal to anyone paying attention that what the GOP really wants is an apartheid regime.
Kay
@Eric U.:
Right, but I’ve been a pollworker and so have a lot of other people. We have huge media coverage of presidential elections. If people were being turned away because someone had impersonated them and voted their ballot, wouldn’t there be some evidence of that?
I can say as a pollworker, the VOTER would raise hell. Ridiculous claims about dead people voting get huge coverage, because the dopes assume the voting list means the dead people VOTED. Wouldn’t you have heard of roving bands of voter-impersonators?
burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus:
Really? That much? It’s not been in evidence to date.
Kay
@TooManyJens:
Not at all. I think his list is great. I felt bad chopping it.
Omnes Omnibus
@feebog: The problem with voter ID is, was, and always will be that certain groups of people have difficulties getting the acceptable documentation. Oddly, these people tend to be poor and/or minority. Effectively, voter ID laws act as a poll tax.
schrodinger's cat
Why can’t we have a federal regulatory body that oversees elections? Same rules for all states, so fiascoes like Florida don’t happen?
cmorenc
Regarding the speed-camera idea mentioned by Justice Roberts in the Shelby County decision:
WHY NOT DO THIS at each voting precinct:
1) Take a photo of each voter as they are checked in at the table to receive their ballot, recording along therewith the registered name the voter is claiming their ballot under.
2) For that matter, they could take a fingerprint of each voter and place that with the picture.
That would both deter would-be multiple voters or people impersonating other voters, and make them much easier to catch and prosecute if that is in fact occurring.
I wouldn’t even have any problem with a photo id requirement, if in fact it was trivially easy and costless to obtain or create a photo id for every citizen. Someone besides and in addition to crowded DMV offices. But that’s not the case, is it? Do concealed firearms permits require a photo as part thereof? If that’s going to be allowed as voter id without a picture, then so should social security cards.
burnspbesq
@TooManyJens:
Obviously, you haven’t heard the true story..
Every year, on Election Day, the Vice Lords, Blackstone Rangers, and Folk Nation declare a one-day truce and go out together to impersonate real voters.
The reason you don’t know this is that their threats of violence have cowed both the local and national media into silence.
Only a handful, who have witnessed it first hand, have had the courage to speak out.
/Republican
Debbie(aussie)
Often wondered why you guys don’t vote on a weekend(Saturdays here) and why your federal isn’t separate. We have three levels, federal, state and municipal, and each one is a separate election. But in saying that we vote for a lot less positions than you do. I first voted in a state election in 1980, never heard anything about voter fraud. Maybe compulsory voting stops that?
Edited for clarity
piratedan
@cmorenc: problem with that, is how do you keep law enforcement from accessing that database, “hey your fingerprints were at the scene!”, or anyone else attempting to steal your identity
Elizabelle
@schrodinger’s cat:
I agree re federal system of voting in federal elections.
No more Floridas. Jeez, many reasons to say that.
Tone in DC
These gas-holes need to STFU. They already got their asses kicked in 2012 with their blatant suppression and these baseless accusations.
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: Sorry, I hit publish too soon. I intended to say she has the intellectual capacity of Louis Gohmert’s left sock. She is our little Bachmann – without the beauty and charm.*
*Yeah, believe me, I am aware of the implications of this statement.
Shakezula
Nope. Stop. Even the SSA says you don’t need to carry a card, you just need to know your number. Not surprising given the amount of havoc a crook can wreak with your SSN. So requiring people to carry and display it more than strictly necessary is stupid. Plus, there is a cost associated with getting a replacement card.
One thing that gets forgotten in this debate is there are still a lot of people who live on the edges in this society and they have the right to vote. There are citizens who who work and live in a cash only world, and then there are the homeless who don’t carry the documentation we believe “everyone” has.
I predict some red states are going to look like even bigger buckets of shit when we start hearing that homeless veterans were denied the right to vote because they couldn’t get their papers in order.
Omnes Omnibus
@Shakezula: In Wisconsin, there was an elderly woman who would have been unable to vote for the first time since FDR because she did not have and could not get the correct documents. No one doubted her identity or citizenship; the records that she needed to get proper ID simply no longer existed.
Cacti
OT:
Looks like Whitey Bulger has started liquidating witnesses against him
He’s gonna be as free as Zimmerman by the time things are done..
Kay
@cmorenc:
There’s 2 parts to voting. Who you are and where you live. The photo ID provision wouldn’t be so onerous if it didn’t include a real burden for people who move a lot.
We had this huge battle in Ohio over this. People don’t update the address on their photo ID (driver’s license) until they have to renew it. We solved it in Ohio by allowing a voter with an address mismatch to recite their SS number and that goes on a line in the poll book. It’s verified later. But it took three years for poll workers to get it! They were handing out provisional ballots for every address mismatch! That’s why we have things like utility bills and “government documents” as back-ups, for the address portion of this inquiry.
The newer ID laws don’t include those back ups.
cleek
strictly speaking, there is no “Federal” election. people vote for people to represent their state (Congress) and they vote for people from their state to vote for President by proxy (aka, the Electoral College). it’s all state or local.
? Martin
@TooManyJens:
Several:
1) It’s a universal ballot in structure – so no butterfly ballot shenanigans. Voters in Florida will get the candidates in the same order and display as voters in Massachusetts.
2) By isolating the ballot, you eliminate all the parochial shit that states use to constrain voters. It won’t matter if you’re in the right precinct or even county, possibly even the right state. If you are a US citizen you get to vote – full stop. If the state wants to do that shit on the state ballot, that’s a separate matter, but federal ballots would get an automatic level of protection. Federal ballot should not require any kind of registration either. If I’m traveling on business and find myself in another state, I should still get a vote.
And I would be all in favor of the Feds making federal elections online for one week. Release an iPhone/iPad/etc app so that any precinct can take off-the-shelf hardware and turn it into a voting booth. If I’m traveling, I can still vote wherever I am and the vote will go back to my home state. It’s the fucking 21st century already.
boatboy_srq
Two problems with the Social Security card idea.
1) The SSN is already a highly overused credential. SSNs were supposed to be confidential, and not used for anything else, yet have become tax identifiers, financial account and transaction identifiers, credit ratings credentials and a host of other things. Adding voter identification to this item will only make things nastier. What we need is a separate, distinct, unrelated identification that is reserved explicitly for elections. (We also need some credential that banks and credit bureaus and employers and school districts and utilities providers &c &c could use in place of the SSN so that number could go back to being the confidential SocSec-only object it was intended to be).
2) The Reichwing, in addition to disenfranchising anyone who might possibly someday disagree with them, is committed to dismantling Social Security itself. Basing election eligibility on participation in a program they want to kill isn’t likely to gain much traction.
I’m all for making passports free and automatically issued to each citizen: that would be the simplest, least-disputed means of validating one’s right to vote (photo, signature and RFID tag all in one on a uniquely numbered federal document). But of course doing that would mean a larger State Department, and would enable all those Other people to travel to other parts of the planet and expose them to things that other nations do (and may well do better than the US does), so that’s a non-starter as well.
I think a lot of the “voter fraud” whinging comes from the epistemic-closure artifact that the Reichwing cannot grasp that their beliefs about government, public policy and public opinion aren’t shared by nearly all the US’ citizens; they believe when they’re told they’re in the right and in the majority, so they can’t fathom how people would hold contrary positions and vote against them. Voter Fraud very neatly explains how, since they’re the bulk of the citizenry, they keep losing key elections. It also explains the GOTea’s conviction that all they need to do is reach out to the rest of the “silent White electorate” who somehow didn’t vote in ’08 and ’12 and they’ll get back to the Permanent Republican Majority they were promised, but that’s another post. We’re not going to see this meme dissipate until Newscorp gets its comeuppance and disappears from the airwaves.
Person of Choler
Conservatives don’t mind people voting, once per election, in a jurisdiction in which they are qualified by law to vote.
As far as voter picture ids are concerned, conservatives want it to be as easy to vote as it is to buy a bottle of booze in a liquor store.
TooManyJens
@Person of Choler:
Which is why, in every state where they’ve passed restrictive voter ID laws, they’ve also made IDs free and easy for any eligible citizen to get.
Wait, what?
catclub
@Cacti: Not only that! Now ABC is wiping even the news story about it!
Omnes Omnibus
@Person of Choler: Voting is a right. Buying booze is an optional activity. Go sit in the corner an think about that for a little while.
? Martin
@Person of Choler: Have you ever tried to buy a bottle of booze across different parts of this country? Plenty of places where you can’t buy it on certain days, or during certain hours. Plenty of places where you can’t buy it at all. And worse, there’s is far more booze bought by people that shouldn’t be allowed to buy it as there are people that vote illegally, so we’ve passed the ‘booze’ standard by a factor of about a zillion even before photo id showed up.
RSA
Because “separate but equal” has been so successful for our country in the past…
Roger Moore
@Person of Choler:
Great, except that:
1) I literally can’t remember the last time I was asked for ID when buying booze here in California, from a liquor store or in a bar or restaurant. I was disappointed not to be asked on my 21st birthday, and I can’t recall offhand being asked at any time since then, at least here in California.
2) There are several constitutional amendments protecting the right to vote and one specifically empowering states to restrict sales of alcohol, so these things are not alike on either practical or constitutional grounds.
hitchhiker
Conservatives want to win, which they’ve discovered they can’t do in way too many places. Their solution is to change the electorate in such a way that they can win. This means inventing reasons for people who don’t like their policies to be kept from voting.
It’s obvious and disgusting.
I hope they keep talking about voter fraud, loudly and passionately! The more the day it, the more backlash there will be, and the more they will lose.
Belafon
@schrodinger’s cat: Because, right now, the constitution gives states authority over voting, except in the cases rendered ineffective by Roberts. It would require a constitutional amendment, which I’m pretty sure close to 50 states would be against.
Shakezula
@cmorenc:
1) And it will have to be retaken regularly, right? Because people get old. And what happens if someone changes their name? Or moves?
2) And then … the fingerprint would have to be compared each time the person voted? By some sort of computer program I assume. There’s also the intimidation factor associated with being printed.
Before the GOP latched on to Voter ID and other disenfranchisement efforts, a favorite trick was to spread the rumor in minority neighborhoods that police would be at the polls waiting to arrest people with outstanding warrants, traffic fines and so on. Imagine how much more effective that would be if people had to have a photo and set of prints on file to vote.
Kay
@Person of Choler:
Think it through. What’s different about the ID requirements conservatives impose for voting and ID for buying booze?
Has a store clerk ever verified that the adress on your ID matches your liquor store registration?
Matt McIrvin
@Debbie(aussie): I’m a little uncomfortable with the idea of separating state, local and federal elections, because it would mean that hardly anyone would ever vote in state or local elections again.
We have a substantial number of people here who only turn out for Presidential elections. It’s a big problem, but at least they’re seeing some other stuff on the ballot when they do that.
Villago Delenda Est
Alberta Darling just came out and said that the purpose of voter ID laws is to keep the “wrong people” (aka those who wouldn’t vote for the vile sack of parasite shit named Mitt Romney) from voting.
Villago Delenda Est
@hitchhiker:
The only “voter fraud” that is EVER uncovered is GOP assholes trying to fix things for GOP candidates.
Anton Sirius
I randomly Tweet at Harry Reid about the need for a Voter’s Rights Act. I’m probably overdue for the next one.
It might only happen after the GOP has collapsed into the regional rump party it is its destiny to become, but it will happen.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: She is too dumb too use code. The purpose of voter ID in Wisconsin was to burden voters in Milwaukee and make it harder for students to vote. I wonder why.
stratplayer
@Person of Choler: I can’t remember the last time I was asked for identification to buy liquor. They only ask people who (subjectively speaking) look young, which is all they’re legally required to do. Do conservatives really want to make voting as easy as buying liquor? Didn’t think so.
gene108
@Person of Choler:
So you want to charge money for people to be able to vote and the more money you spend the better vote you get?
I mean there’s a reason black label, red label and blue label are all priced differently, so a lot of money gets you the premium blue label vote, while most folks settle for the low end black label vote, while those who can’t afford it don’t vote.
TooManyJens
@stratplayer:
Oh, I don’t know. I’m sure they’d be fine with only asking for voter ID from people who (subjectively speaking) don’t seem like “legitimate” voters.
Kay
@Villago Delenda Est:
It’s really the fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives on voting.
Liberals say “state officials are screwing with voters!”
Conservatives say “voters are screwing with state officials!”
The problem is voters. That’s new in politics. They’re expanding it too! In the 2012 Presidential election, they started saying Democratic voters had bad intent voting for Democrats. Remember? We all wanted free stuff.
That’s what I love about it. It’s so crazy! Politicians attacking voters, directly. This is their strategy.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay:
In light of the poster you addressed this too, this is really not a realistic expectation.
You cannot reason with these wingtard asswipes. The only thing that gets through is a clue by four upside the head.
Roger Moore
@stratplayer:
Sure they do. Just substitute “brown” for “young” in the statement above, and you have the exact picture of what Republicans want to do. If you’re the right kind of person from the right part of town, voting should be easy. If you’re the wrong kind of person from the wrong part of town, you should have to go to a tiny, dingy, crowded polling place with voting officials behind bullet proof glass who treat you like a criminal and have a shotgun ready in case you try to pull anything.
Michele C.
I guess I agree that a Social Security card won’t work for the reasons already mentioned, plus, I don’t quite understand how it would prove that you live in a district or state, which I don’t actually believe is a voter fraud issue, but I’m sure that the Rethugs do.
I am also extremely positive that a lot more fraud occurs for buying booze, which is not a right, oh by the way.
The idea of a universal Federal ballot does seem pretty darn good, but I’ve started to get all frustrated an angry again at the whole mess and am having trouble thinking. I throw myself down a rabbit hole of “what will the eejit Republicans think of next” and my frustration builds until my brain hurts.
Sublime33
In 20 years, today’s young voters will get their revenge by forcing all voters to walk up the stairs to the sixth floor to cast their ballot on Election Day.
waratah
Kay, we have Jenn Brown Ohio’s Obama field director working with Jeremy Byrd with Battleground Texas . First time in years I have hope for Texas.
http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/life-and-death-and-life-party?fullpage=1
Kay
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’ve done this (probably literally) a million times :)
It used to drive me crazy about media, but now I don’t care. I would think “do you VOTE? what’s the PROCESS?” They still do it. “Mickey Mouse filled out a registration card” becomes “Mickey Mouse voted”. “Dead people on a voter list” becomes “dead people voted”. Every single year.
I don’t think they vote. None of them vote.
Michele C.
On Wisconsin, did people see that State Rep Theisfeldt has started an anti-flu vaccine bill, because freedom?
https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2013/related/proposals/ab247
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay:
The thing is, the filling out of a registration card DOES NOT MEAN that the person was ever actually registered to vote, let alone voted…which you have of course noted!
ACORN got burned because the accepted registration cards, and then turned them over to the county election office in a separate pile of “these look bogus to us, but we can’t make the call, only you can”. Somehow this was turned into “look at all these bogus voters that ACORN signed up in an effort to pollute our precious bodily fluids!”
Drives me crazy, it does. Not the slightest inclination to learn the process, which isn’t that damn complicated in the first place, most dull normals can grasp it. Oops, there I go, overestimating the intelligence of the average “journalist” nowadays, particularly the ones on the evening news, that Don Henley so lovingly serenaded in “Dirty Laundry”.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay:
Yup. This. Their strategy is to attack voters themselves for not voting the way they want them to.
Is this the Leninism 102 playbook they’re cribbing from here?
gene108
I saw a post on my Facebook feed that someone went to a rally in support of Trayvon Martin’s family. Interesting nugget is he says they registered hundreds of new voters.
Interesting unification of protests and voter mobilization.
Omnes Omnibus
@Michele C.: Oh dear god. I am becoming really embarrassed about my state. Hopefully, this bill just dies a quiet death.
Kay
@Villago Delenda Est:
I don’t even get that far with it. Just on a surface political-marketing level it’s weird. Politicians ordinarily kowtow to voters. They practically ass kiss.
I mean, they say awful things about the politician-opponent, but voters themselves?
Kay
@Villago Delenda Est:
The part that was most unfair with that was ACORN can’t do any discretionary culling of voter reg cards. The voting official has to do it.
It’s barred. And for a good reason! If they started deciding which card was valid, all hell would break loose. So they aren’t allowed to do it. They know there’s no Mickey Mouse voter-but it has to be turned in.
Shakezula
@Michele C.: Um. For starters, where the fuck is the exception for health care workers?
Sorry Mr. Compromised Immune System Patient, you’re going to be placed at a greater risk of illness by someone on the hospital staff who didn’t want to get the damn flu shot because Freedoom!
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: During the course of the Walker recall, a Joe Stalin (his real name) called the GAB to let them know he was real so that his name was not purged from the petitions. There are 13 people named Michael Mouse on Linkedin. People should be very hesitant to judge names as illegitimate.
Keith G
I want there to be national ID cards with biometric data. At age 15 years, free cards are issued to all the citizens. They’re free (I say again). Every 10 years you get another free updated card.
They need to be designed to have both physical visual and encrypted digital signifiers that can show residency status, Social Security and Medicare eligibilities, drivers license, and voter registration – among others.
If you lose it, go to the nearest office with your thumb print and $10 and get a new one.
Omnes Omnibus
@Keith G: National ID cards? That’s the first step towards FEMA/Obamacare Death Camps
/ Tea Party
PurpleGirl
@TooManyJens: That is roughly how NY does it too. They have books containing just the names, addresses and signature exemplars for the voters of any particular election district. You sign on a line above the signature exemplar. Since the poll workers are usually local people (though not always) they often know you by sight. The system has worked for years.
Keith G
@Omnes Omnibus: and yet it’s a very efficient way to know who is here legally, which is arguably a greater Tea Party concern.
gene108
@Kay:
I think Republicams have hinting at the fact people vote for Democrats because of handouts, ever since “welfare queens” was introduced.
The may have only focused on blacks, but it has been around for awhile
rikyrah
KEEP on informing us, Kay.
keep on bringing out the truth about these people.
Anton Sirius
@gene108:
This is how the GOP dies. They serve up more crazy bullshit to protest, which then generates new voters to make the most effective protest of all.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
I wish it would work but voter fraud is a belief, so I don’t know that it will matter.
They revamped the whole Mexican system. National voter ID cards. They won all kinds of raves from international democracy orgs. Access! Security!
There were the exact same claims of voter fraud in elections after the ID system went in as there were before. Voter fraud might be a state of mind :)
rikyrah
we have Grace period registration – which is for people who forgot to register during the normal times. begins the day after formal registration ends and goes thru the Saturday before an election.
you have to register and vote at the same time, must present ID. the only problem I had with it was that it was only offered in a few select places, but that’s about to change….it will be offered at numerous Early Voting sites. (I’m from Cook County)
Illinois also got rid of ‘ reason-based’ Absentee Ballot Applications…
Mnemosyne
@PurpleGirl:
I know I sign a book here in California, but I’m not even sure they compare signatures. I tell them my name and address, they look me up, a couple of poll workers make sure they’re giving me the right ballot, and I go on my way to the voting booth.
I really don’t get how this massive in-person fraud supposedly works. Don’t you have to be certain ahead of time that the person you’re impersonating isn’t voting that day? What if you and the person you’re impersonating show up at the polls at the same time? What if the real voter cast their ballot first?
Shakezula
@Keith G: What does this have to do with the right to vote?
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: It doesn’t work. Partly because of the problems you mention and partly because people just don’t do it. The “problem” is nonexistent.
The Other Chuck
@Keith G:
Fixed to reflect the way things actually work.
Or one could simply admit the fact that voter impersonation fraud simply doesn’t exist in even a remotely significant quantity.
Michele C.
@Shakezula: This went through my Twitter feed when someone retweeted a blog by a pediatrician on exactly that. He presented lots of facts on how this would be so horrible for children, the elderly, immune-compromised, etc., and cited articles in The Lancet and facts (http://pediatrics.about.com/b/2013/07/18/making-it-easier-to-get-the-flu.htm).
I don’t know Wisconsin, but the anti-vaccine crowd is certainly out there.
catpal
IF they were REALLY worried about Voter ID — then in the case of PA — they would’ve used the over $3 MILLION of FED money to STAFF all PennDot Motor Vehicle Offices for 24/7 for 6 months — and Helped everyone get a correct ID.
Instead Republican Gov CLOSED many offices and decreased open hours and Staff where IDs are given out. Or go door-to-door to offer help to get IDs.
Why is NO Dem out there making that statement — especially to the PA Judge who will decide this.
Keith G
@Shakezula:
Some states weed out lower income voters by making the ID process as arduous (and costly) as possible. Below your comment The Other Chuck: somes it up rather well
This has everything to do with the right to vote.
johnny aquitard
@Person of Choler:
It’s a tell that conservatives see voting as a commercial transaction: Optional, and only if the guy behind the counter is willing, and only if the buyer can afford it.
Tells me just how little regard they have toward democracy.
johnny aquitard
@Kay: Republicans. Always insisting a protection of the democratic process is a theft, and the theft is a protection.
RaflW
Yes, there’s the good sort, in Waukesha county. And then there’s the bad sort, in blackity black Milwaukee.
That’s the all sorts of precincts and registrants she’s talking about.