Voter IDs: a Modern Poll Tax?

Voter IDs: a Modern Poll Tax?
by James C. Harrington
Despite innuendo, there actually is no proof of any widespread fraud in Texas, at least not the kind that government ID would take care of. In fact, there are far greater possibilities of fraud or malfunction with Texas’ paperless electronic voting machines.

Posted on May 8, 2008
For the last half century, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court steadily have undone voting impediments created by local and state governments. That effort came to a screeching halt on April 28, however, when the high court upheld Indiana's onerous law requiring voters to present a state-issued photo identification card, with an expiration date, on election day.

This government ID scheme works against older voters who no longer drive or travel (as we saw with the old nuns denied the ballot in the recent Indiana primary), students in college, voters with disabilities, minority and poor people, new voters who recently became citizens, and homeless individuals. No matter whether people have voted in their precinct, are known to election staff, or have other ID, they still must get a driver’s license or specified government ID.


snip

Texas originally started out enabling people to vote, rather than impeding them. The delegates to the 1875 convention, which gave us our current constitution, lead by Grangers and progressive Republicans, rejected a variety of electoral impediments: poll taxes, literacy tests, property taxes, and multi-member legislative and judicial districts.

The delegates rejected schemes to limit suffrage because they understood that denying the franchise to African Americans inevitably would deprive them of the political power they needed to break state government's unholy alliance with big business, railroads, and monopolies.

The 1876 Constitution reflects a populist revolt that gave Texas some of the broadest suffrage rights in the nation. For example, until 1919 non-citizens could vote if they met the residency requirement and declared their intent to become citizens.

more
http://www.newspapertree.com/opinion/2428-voter-ids-a-modern-poll-tax

You can get state ID for no charge, so there's no poll tax.

Don't know about other states.

I admit it's a problem for the invalid and the homeless.

But it's not a poll tax.

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You have to have a birth certificate or passport and proof of social security number and other documentation to prove your address and date of birth and citizenship.

If you don't already have these then you have to apply to get them and pay money and wait for weeks and...

The effort and expense involved is a poll tax.

John Gideon makes a point May 13 - can you prove your citizenship?

I am wondering how much time and effort it would take me to get the needed documents. Oh well, if I get deported, I hope its to a nice country.

John Gideon's Daily Voting News May 13

Do you know where your passport is? Do you have one? Do you know where
your birth certificate is? How about your marriage license? In Missouri,
and probably more states to come, some law makers want you to prove your
citizenship before you can register to vote. This is clearly an attempt
to stop the hoards of Mexicans and Canadians who stream over our borders
each Nov. just to vote in our elections; or more likely just an attempt
to keep some people from the polls. If you don't have a birth
certificate you have to pay to get a copy. If you are a woman and
married the birth certificate is not enough; you need a marriage license
to prove your maiden name. Can't afford the copies if you don't have
them? You don't vote. Born without a birth certificate? You don't vote.
Birth certificate or marriage license originals no longer exist because
of fire, flood, hurricane (Katrina, Rita)? You don't vote. Who is
affected? The poor, people of color, citizens with disabilities,
homeless. This has got to stop.

NAtional: Citizenship Proof Next Up in Voter ID Battle
http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/05/12/citizenship-proof-next-up-in-voter-id-battle/

NAtional: Editorial - The Myth of Voter Fraud
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/opinion/13tue1.html

KS: Does Kansas need a voter ID law?
http://www.dodgeglobe.com/opinions/x1191417682/Does-Kansas-need-a-voter-ID-law

MO: Voter ID bill appears headed to voters
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/politics/story/BBDC4A310C054EDF86257448000A2253?OpenDocument

MO: Voter ID battle in Mo. shifts to proof of citizenship
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/05/12/voter_id_battle_in_mo_shifts_to_proof_of_citizenship/

It is therefore imperative that we all work very hard to get Dems elected to state legislatures, where these voting requirement bills are hatched.

The REpublicans are more scared than ever that they will lose future elections because we have the greater numbers in our party. Suppression of our vote is the only way they can win and we can't let them...

Any citizen attempting to vote will be given a sheet of paper that says:

This government ID scheme works against older voters who no longer drive or travel, students in college, voters with disabilities, minority and poor people, new voters who recently became citizens, and homeless individuals (and certain others).

Any citizen reading the front side of the paper who still professes a willingness (or a right, perhaps) to vote, will be told to read the other side of the paper. Turned over, the other side of the paper reads thusly:




Are you stupid or just trying to piss me off?

You are not one of us or you would already have a photo ID to vote. If you didn't already have one, you would have spent your money to get one, or you would have called your GOP Precinct Kapitan to "fix" the situation for you. Either way, your lack of a Photo ID indicates to me that you are not qualified to vote.

Now if you plan to go off on some rant about how we are denying your disenfranchised ass a chance to vote, please proceed to the next table and fill out a "Provisional Ballot" and deposit it in the box next to the trash can.

Then, when we have announced The Official Winner, you can be sure that we will count your Provisional Vote and put it where it belongs... In that trash can!

/s/ Your County Board of Election Commissioners



The prospective voter, if they have not already left, will then be asked if they would be so kind as to just get the Hell out of the precinct before the Sheriff is summoned.

After all, they will be reminded, real voters need an opportunity to cast their ballots and they have better things to do than to wait on some yokel who can't even prove who they really are by producing a Government-issued Photo Voter ID.

In addition, they will be sternly reminded, all of the staff at the precinct are busy doing the work of the Gummint. And anyone complaining about Gummint-Issued Photo Voter ID is taking up the valuable time of the Election Workers and wasting the taxpayer's money!

:rofl::cry: :rofl:

Might you consider an OP? :thumbsup:

in Florida caging, if you send a letter to an address and don't get a response, you are dropped from the registration rolls. Along with similar tactics (exactly spelled names, etc.), the ID provides the database to selectively exclude some from different zip codes, precincts, demographics, etc. with any number of tricks.

Also, I tried to pretend I was a programmer who wanted to create a formula that would produce undervotes or random switches (hard to detect) like those that occurred in Sarasota. A lot of any hidden formula depends on anticipating the profile of voters who would likely vote. If I were a hacker, I'd really appreciate the information from a detailed voter registration. I'm sure that some would think that is a conspiracy theory, but if you've witnessed what I've seen in Florida, you would be more wary. Ensuring against "fraud" also allows ways to manipulate the election.

Add that to the paranoia of recent citizenship or having family members with questionable legal status, the hassles of age or poverty and the limited amount of resources one can expend to do anything but just get by...and hey, voting gets really low on the list. Especially when you are just trying to pay for the soaring costs of food, gas, rent, utilities and meds. Yep, lets make those basics soar up in cost, so you don't even notice all the rights and freedoms we are taking away....

Excellent compilation, Sancho.:)

Mostly because the more I think about it, the "homeless person with no address and so can't get state ID" thing really bothers me.

I agree there's a lot of ways to manipulate the voting *results* and I'm opposed to electronic voting without a paper record. We at least need a hanging chad to fight about.


But why would you have "paranoia of recent citizenship" such that you wouldn't have ID? Wouldn't that paranoia compel you to have "your papers in order", so to speak? You've done a lot of things to be a citizen, you'd protect it by following the rules.

And I don't see how family members play into it. Or at least not enough to say that it's understandable that you don't want to get ID that allows you to vote.

Wouldn't you also just not vote?

Is it really a reasonable accommodation to take into account that kind of fear?

Sounds like you you need to browse this forum a bit. Check back in the archives about election management systems and see all the many ways your vote can be stolen.

Sancho is from Florida and I am from Texas. Both have high Hispanic populations, although the ones from Cuba in Florida used to trend republican. My post was a follow up to Sancho's first. The vote suppressors do all the things he enumerated, and then mine pile on. His list is the more compelling, mine are just tipping point factors on top of his.

You write...

"Wouldn't you also just not vote?"
and make my case for me... We are having to convince people to vote. This crap is purposefully inserted to get in the way. Viola, success for the vote suppressors and less Dem votes.

For example...

1.) A recent voter roll "checkup" in Florida sent a letter to registered voters. If they didn't reply, they were purged from the rolls. This was not universal across all of Florida, but up to each local election supervisor. Democratic precincts were targeted.

2.) Older folks who move a lot (health care, nursing homes, staying with relatives, etc.) are like homeless and don't have "permanent addresses", but are interested in health care and social security so they are left off the roll.

3.) Simply making voter machines and locations more accessible in GOP precincts (based on registrations) can change a close election. Here in Florida the supervisors even use traffic patterns to make it more difficulty for Democrats to vote.

4.) Without getting into a TIA conversation: if I wanted to hack a voting machine or tabulator, I would know that "statisticians" and "pollsters" would be looking for patterns that differed from "chance error". A hack that changed every 4th vote or some such thing would be easily detected. If I tell the machine to randomly select some votes to change, that would be a pattern that is harder to detect. The problem is that I have to say HOW many random changes that would lead to a win, but not be so crazy that it would be an obvious manipulation. IF I know the number of republican, democratic, and independent registrations in a precinct and some demographics, I can set a random number of changes that is likely to win but not be too weird. In Sarasota, some given precincts had large numbers of undervotes among Democratic voters but not on the same machines in neighboring precincts. Some of us wonder if that was a hacked election. We've seen similar patterns in other Florida elections.

5.) Citizenship rules can be pretty complicated. In order to vote, many legal voters would fear revealing relatives and neighbors who might be illegal if they had to fill out registration forms to get an ID. It's also embarrassing to be challenged at the voting booth, especially if you're not a native English speaker and halfway understand what is happening. I know a "legal voter" from Europe who is married to an illegal person (who overstayed a student visa) who will not register to vote. He also doesn't want to serve on jury duty and have to answer questions under oath. It takes years and lots of money for most of these people to get legal citizenship. Obviously, most vote Democratic. Many new citizens don't have birth certificates or other documents nor can they get them from the home country in order to register.

6.) In Florida, convicted felons can't vote (ever). There have been allegations here of voting booths with lists of names of convicts that are not allowed to vote. Prior registrations give the GOP election supervisor names and birth dates that can be used to "match" with lists of convicts in order to turn away Democratic voters.

7.) In my county, to register on line you must input your driver's license number. If you don't drive you have to go the the election offices to get an ID and register. If you can't drive, then how do you get there? You have to pay for a taxi or special transport (if disabled)? Yes, it can turn into a cost.

I could go on...but it is clear that this law was aimed at controlling the next election.

Election Supervisor Subpoenaed for NCAA Lawsuit is Hard to Find:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/article497140.ece

and

VA's Voter Registration Ban Raises Questions:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/veterans/article497828.ece



:mad:

As I understand it, Georgia's voter ID law requires that if someone can not afford or otherwise obtain a voter ID card, they need only call a toll-free number and a van will be sent to their location and generate such a card for free.

afford or otherwise obtain a voter ID card? Do you have a link to support your assertion?
Thanks,
Melissa

I'm certainly not an expert on it. Just going on what I've read, but since you asked I googled and found this:
http://www.gaphotoid.com/FAQ.html

FROM THEIR WEB SITE:

2. How much does a Voter ID Card cost?
A Georgia Voter ID Card is free to anyone registered to vote in Georgia who does not have an acceptable form of photo ID.

3. What do I need to have to get a free voter ID card?
To receive a free Voter ID Card from your county registrar’s office you must show one of the following documents:
A photo identity document, except that a non-photo identity document is acceptable if it includes both the applicant’s full legal name and date of birth.
Documentation showing the applicant’s date of birth
Evidence that the applicant is registered to vote in the state of Georgia
Documentation showing the applicant’s name and principal residence address

What is your principle residence if you lived with your son, moved to assisted care, and also own a home in Michigan? That's about half of Florida. Any poll worker who wanted to could keep you from voting.

You can be a legal citizen here but have no access to a birth certificate or "full legal name" if you just moved from Poland or Haiti. You certainly could not prove date of birth. I know one legal citizen who escaped communist Poland by hiding in a secret compartment welded to the bottom of a truck, sailing to the Canary Islands, flying to Mexico, and walking in to the US. He now has full citizenship! Original papers?!?! No way. That's the other half of the folks in Florida (at least the Democrats).

We have legal voters in Florida who live on boats that are transient! They have a PO Box, but no residential address.
We have lots of new citizen's whose full name is whatever they say it is...
GA compares your name to a list of "felons". What if you have the same name as a prisoner?
You could be a grey-haired grandmother but have no birth certificate. What do you do then?
Telephone numbers and race are used to "cage" or "hack" elections (along with zip codes). In fact, with that information you can find out if someone has donated to an election, has good credit, or any number of things.



-----------snip-------------------------
1. LEGAL NAME. Your full legal name including any suffix such as Sr., Jr., III, is required on this form.
2. ADDRESS. Provide residential address. This information is required.
3. MAILING ADDRESS. If mailing address is different from residential address, complete the mailing address section.
4. PERSONAL INFORMATION. A telephone number is helpful to registration officials if they have a question about your application. Gender
and race are requested and are needed to comply with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but are not mandated by law.
5. VOTER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER. Federal law requires you to provide your full GA Drivers License number or GA State issued ID
number. If you do not have a GA Drivers License or GA ID you must provide the last 4 digits of your Social Security number. Providing your
full Social Security number is optional. Your Social Security number will be kept confidential and may be used for comparison with other state
agency databases for voter registration identification purposes. If you do not possess a GA Drivers License or Social Security number please
check the appropriate box and a unique identifier will be provided for you.
6. OATH. Federal law requires that you answer the citizenship and age questions. Read the oath and sign your name. If you cannot complete this
application unassisted because of physical disability or illiteracy, you must either sign or make your mark on the signature line, and the person
assisting you MUST sign the signature space for person assisting voter.
7. POLL OFFICER QUESTION. Your willingness to be a poll worker will have no bearing on your application for registration.
8. NAME/ADDRESS CHANGE. Complete these sections to change the name or address of your current voter registration.
9. MAP/DIAGRAM: If you live in an area without house numbers and street names, please include a drawing of your location to assist us in
locating your appropriate voting precinct.
10. DELIVERY INSTRUCTIONS: Verify that you have completed and signed the application. Enclose a copy of your ID if you are submitting
this form by mail and registering for the first time in Georgia. Fold the application in half, remove the tape at the top, and press the edges
together. The application is ready for you to mail (postage is prepaid) or deliver to your county voter registration office.
11. You are NOT officially registered to vote until this application is approved. You should receive a voter precinct card in the mail. If you do
not receive this acknowledgement within two to four weeks after mailing this form, please contact your county voter registration office. You can
find your poll location and other election information on the Secretary of State’s website at www.sos.state.ga.us/elections.

I kept trying to get to it, but life kept making me work instead of post in the forum.:):hi:

Voter ID by the Numbers

May 14, 2008
snip
The costs of proving citizenship, or even obtaining ID, are anything but free. And the benefits of requiring an ID to vote—ostensibly as a means to prevent voter fraud—are anything but proven. The evidence of widespread voter fraud is nonexistent, and the effects of fraud are insignificant. Yet laws meant to prevent this non-problem are proliferating—preventing thousands of American citizens from exercising their right to vote.

The By the Numbers below shows just how costly these requirements can be for those who can least afford them:
How much does it cost to get a driver’s license or prove citizenship?

$45: Fee for a six-year driver’s license in Missouri. A non-driver’s identification card costs $11.

$15: Cost of a birth certificate, the most commonly used document to obtain a driver’s license, in Missouri.
100: Cost of a passport, as of February 1, 2008. Obtaining other forms of citizenship documentation can cost even more (up to $460 for a citizenship application). Any form of documentation can take months to process.

25: Number of states, including Missouri, that require some form of identification be presented at the polls. Seven of those, including Indiana, require or can request photo ID.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=502600&mesg_id=502600