US Supreme Court Says: Need ID to Vote

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by MarkG
let me get this straight. you register to vote and get a card that supposedly proves you identification but doesnt even have a photo on it?

Yep. (Oerdin's wrong.) Not only that, I once (pre-9/11)was able to use my no-photo-ID voter registration card as proof of citizenship when entering Canada.

OTOH, and also in the days before 9/11, an old girlfriend of mine who didn't drive used to have to fight to get stores to accept her passport as a valid ID, in spite of the fact that a passport is an infinitely more secure document than a driver's license.

As a nation, we've generally been very, very casual at best -- and downright stupid at worst -- about ID.

[Dinner]

The new law in Indiana requires a picture ID and not just a voter registration card.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Oerdin
The new law in Indiana requires a picture ID and not just a voter registration card.

But that's just Indiana, and only now; most juristictions still don't require photo ID to vote, which I thought was what MarkG was asking.

edit: never mind; I think I see what MarkG is asking, and he's right: if the state is going to go through the trouble of registering you to vote and issuing you a voter ID, and it's going to require a picture ID to vote, then logically the voter ID should be a picture ID. Yes, that would make sense.

Of course, as the analysis of the decision in Slate today points out, Indiana's chief problem with voter fraud is with absentee ballots, which this law doesn't fix; apparently, the state couldn't even find an instance of in-person ID fraud to cite in Indiana, and had to rely on an example from post-Civil War Tammany New York in its SCOTUS brief.

[onodera]

Here in Russia you have to bring your passport to vote. Moreover, you have to go to the district/town you're registered in, as your biodata will be matched against the list of local residents. If for some reason you cannot vote there, you have to go there in advance and get a voter card which allows you to vote anywhere.

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
edit: never mind; I think I see what MarkG is asking, and he's right: if the state is going to go through the trouble of registering you to vote and issuing you a voter ID, and it's going to require a picture ID to vote, then logically the voter ID should be a picture ID. Yes, that would make sense.

logic

[SlowwHand]

I agree. Anyone that is of voting age has a driver's license or photo ID anyway.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe
I agree as long as free picture ID is provided and that accessabilty to acquiring one is made exceedingly easy and free from any forms of intimidation.

My thoughts exactly.

-Arrian

[MrFun]

I want to know when "flying on an airplane" became a constitutional right.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by MrFun
I want to know when "flying on an airplane" became a constitutional right.

Can you think of something stupider to get hung up on? I'll bet you can.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Originally posted by Aeson
How are the dead supposed to cast their ballots now!!@!?

[DanS]

Originally posted by Oerdin
I do know that people who get DUIs and other offenses have their ids taken away by the cops right there on the scene before they're even officially convicted of anything. Essentially this means those people would lose their right to vote or fly on an airplane before they've ever even been convicted of anything in a court of law. That doesn't seem fair to me.

No, they can get a walker's license from the DMV. Nominal fee.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

More to the point this ruling provides a mechanism for a free pix ID sans nominal fee.

[DanS]

In DC, a walker's license costs $20. The fee is the least of the issues involved, IMO (from both the gov't's perspective and the equity standpoint). To be sure, the free Indiana walker's license takes away an excuse to overturn their law.

Edit: I note that in DC, ex-offenders and senior citizens get a walker's license free of charge.

[chequita guevara]

It's much easier to register as a voter than to get a government id. You can register to vote at your post office, the library, and during voter registration drives, pretty much anywhere. People will even come to your door to register you.

It's rather inconvenient to get government photo id. You have to take several hours, generally, as such offices are usually understaffed and few and far between. You have to stand in long lines for a long time, deal with annoyed people and overworked employees.

The main issue is this fixes a problem almost no one had. The main problem with voter fraud is from absentee ballots. The biggest problem with elections, however, isn't voter fraud, but vote suppression, either by intimidation or by falsely accusing voters of being felons, etc.

[DinoDoc]

Why should I be required to show photo ID to sell books back at Uni but not to vote?