Ellison wants to ban photo ID as requirement for voting

Washington (AP) Requiring photo IDs to vote in federal elections would be banned under legislation introduced Wednesday by Rep Keith Ellison, who said such requirements disenfranchise minorities, the poor, women, elderly and young people.

"While photo IDs seem harmless they are in fact the modern day poll tax", Ellison D-MN said in a statement.

Ellison, who serves on the Judicatory Committee, got an important backer for the bill, as the panel's chairman, Michigan Democrat John Conyers, signed on as a co-sponsor.

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Maybe this bill will pass and put to rest these ID's needed to vote. Which does indeed cause a lot of people to be unable to vote. My sister living in Indiana says it cuts down on illegal immigrants voting. I told her that was the most stupid republican statement she ever made. What illegal in their right mind would register to vote and take a chance of being sent back across the border. She didn't have an answer.

"The illegal-immigrants-voting straw man is far from the biggest problem at the ballot box. Blaming illegal immigrants, in fact, is a cynical ploy that ultimately would make it easier to keep Americans away from the polls -people like those in, say, Ohio, or in neighborhoods across the country where poor public transportation is as much an obstacle to getting an ID as it is to getting out the vote."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michele-wucker/the-illegals-voting-hoa_b_32158.html

the ID they tried to scare the people there.

What would prevent someone from simply going to a polling place claiming to be someone else?

Every time I vote, they ask me where I live and then I have to sign the register stating that I'm me. (Which then becomes public record, btw.) In all the years I've been voting, no one has ever said, "Sorry, you've already been here today; see your signature on this line?"

:shrug:

and why?

Most people who vote would intrinsically understand that duplicate voting names more than likely will be thrown out invalidating the time and effort they spent going to the voting location.

I mean the people affected by these bills more than likely are not anarchists or merry pranksters so what would be their motivation? Is being part of a voter irregularity investigation now a recreational activity?

of votes for Democrats.

When I go to the polls, I have to check in with with the poll workers, giving them my name and address. They check me off a list before they give me a ballot. When I am done and ready to submit my completed ballot, I have to do the same thing with a another set of poll workers with their own list. If anyone else tried to vote as me, it would be obvious because I would already be checked off the list. Besides, they would have to know my exact address and apt #. Otherwise, they wouldn't even get a ballot.

Republicans don't want the poor or elderly voting. Its plain as day.

we could give all citizens of the US some form of photo ID without the need for payment...

A new federal agency would have to be created just to crank out 300 million ID cards.

Where are these offices going to be located? The local post office and DMV seem to be pretty busy already.


Are they going to be required for anything else to justify their expense?

You need one to go through airport security, for work, to buy certain goods, and a whole host of other reasons. I think it's a very practical solution that would help many people. Couldn't it just be part of the social security system? I mean, that would be the most equivalent... Just make them photo social security cards or something... Obviously it's not a trivial task to do this, but I think we can handle it... after all, we did manage to fake a landing on the moon. :P

I just recall when I voted in '04 the place I went to seemed a bit more screwed up. Perhaps it was more organized than it appeared.

As Ellison well knows

of the 1800's.. We need to get over this wild-west mentality and decide once and for all ....WTF DO we want?

Do we want to be anonymous zombies skulking around unknown..unseen..with wads of cash in our pockets..?? Might as well all don chadors, so no one will be able to see anything but our eyes.. or better yet, put some shades on those peepers, so NO ONE can tell who that big black blob schlepping down the street is..

But wait!! when a woman wants to get a drivers license picture WEARING one of those, we go ballistic about that too..


We expect to be able to vote and have legal, clean elections, with ONLY the people registered , voting....but "Don't wanna show any ID"..

People don't "know" each other like they used to in "Leave-it-to-Beaverworld".

ID..and by that I mean PICTURE ID is a necessary fact of life..and whining about it like a petulant 8 yr old will NOT change that fact.

The "gubbmint" already KNOWS who you are, where you were born, who your parents are, who your siblings are, where you live, where you work, where you went to school..and few people have reached adulthood without ever having some sort of credit in their name, so the banks know about you too.

The solution is so obvious it's downright painful..

Our country is twisting itself into a pretzel over the whole ID thing and all we need is for every citizen to get a damned passport..and for the people who cannot afford it, then they get theirs for free.. It's a whole lot cheaper in the long run that for all the stupid plans than are floating around now.

wanna vote? passport says you are a citizen
wanna travel outside the US..a no brainer
wanna prove you are entitled to work here? passport says you are a citizen..
wanna ever have a national health-care plan?? passport identified YOU as being eligible

We are wasting tons of money and time on something so easily solved and aren't we PROUD to be Americans:evilgrin:..why would we be reluctant to have a US Passport? People all over the world have died, trying to get here to GET a US passport .. ..and yet US citizens who are ENTITLED to have one, are flailing around like goofballs, screaming about how they don't want the gubbmint to know who they are :eyes:

If we can spend the money we are , on a stupid war, we could certainly hire enough people for the processing of passports for all of us... Hey..we made it to the moon once upon a time..surely we could manage to do this one thing that would put a stop to all the nonsense..

and if someone refuses to get a passport, then they can just skulk around the periphery of society while the rest of us vote, and travel and get jobs and someday, even use our national health care service (hey, I can dream)..

And regarding the bulky heavy unwiedy thing that IS the passport itself, the INFORMATION on the passport could surely be "Backed up" onto a plastic card we could carry in our wallets.. what a concept :)..It could even be coded with our driver information..and our school information..and any number of other things..

voter fraud problem.

And btw, I've wanted a passport for two years but haven't been able to afford one. You buying? :)

and I'm not talking about voter fraud..just the fact that citizenship is required, and for all the loonies who insist that "illeeeeegals are gonna vote", using a passport as the qualifying ID would shut them up once and for all..

whining and fearmongering works for them.

Maybe it'll stop working at some point. Yesterday on the floor of the House, Dreier sounded just like Charlie Brown's teacher. lol

if you don't have $100, you can't afford to travel anyway

... because someone had signed on my line at the entrance to the polling station. Wasn't me, but the workers told me I couldn't vote twice.

I have no problem with the photo ID requirement.

N/T

Had they asked for photo ID BEFORE letting people in, though (as opposed to after it was too late), someone else would not have denied me my vote.

Several years ago my friend's dad had an awful time getting a passport because the court house where his birth certificate had been filed burned down long before anyone thought of putting the documents on a computer.

A couple years ago, because I was worried about someone deciding we would need id to vote, I dragged my mother in to get a state ID card (she hasn't had a driver's license in 20 years). She had to bring a copy of her birth marriage certificates. We had a very young clerk who was taken aback by both documents. Mom had a copy of her birth certificate that she'd picked up in 1942 - it was typed and totally threw the kid off. Then, he noticed that her marriage certificate didn't indicate what last name she would use. Fortunately, there was an older clerk there who came over, looked at the birth certificate and pointed out the county seal was on it so it was indeed good. Looked at the marriage certificate and said "It was 1946, they assumed the name would change." So, all the papers got stamped and Mom's picture was taken, but when she took out her checkbook to pay she was told they couldn't take a check without a photo id (which, of course, would take a couple weeks before the state mailed it out). Fortunately, they could take my check.

:kick: