Posted on 07/07/2013 6:05:32 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
State officials across the South are aggressively moving ahead with new laws requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls after the Supreme Court decision striking down a portion of the Voting Rights Act.
The Republicans who control state legislatures throughout the region say such laws are needed to prevent voter fraud. But such fraud is extremely rare, and Democrats are concerned that the proposed changes will make it harder for many poor voters and members of minorities — who tend to vote Democratic — to cast their ballots in states that once discriminated against black voters with poll taxes and literacy tests.
The Supreme Court ruling last month freed a number of states with a history of discrimination, mostly in the South, of the requirement to get advance federal permission in order to make changes to their election laws.
Within hours, Texas officials said that they would begin enforcing a strict photo identification requirement for voters, which had been blocked by a federal court on the ground that it would disproportionately affect black and Hispanic voters. In Mississippi and Alabama, which had passed their own voter identification laws but had not received federal approval for them, state officials said that they were moving to begin enforcing the laws.
The next flash point over voting laws will most likely be in North Carolina, where several voting bills had languished there this year as the Republicans who control the Legislature awaited the Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which had covered many counties in the state. After the ruling, some Republican lawmakers said that they would move as soon as next week to pass a bill requiring voters to present photo identification at the polls.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I have a problem with seeing a person lose their right to vote simply because they lose their job. The Democrats would endeavor to see that as many that voted Republican the last election would be pink-slipped before the next.
If I could snap my fingers and get my way, here's what would happen: every eligible American would have their vote count as it does now. Every tax-paying American would have their vote weighted by a multiple determined by the amount of federal, state and property taxes they pay. The system to track and police the application of the multiple would take some gymnastics to configure, but I think it's doable. It would eliminate this alternate reality we live in where someone who contributes nothing having their vote count as much as someone who contributes much.
Just like convicted felons lose their right to vote for a time, anyone on Federal assistance should similiarly be disenfranchised for the period they are on the dole
I personally know one.
FRmail on its way to you.
I suspect the next elections may be dramatic in some places.
For example, in many areas, the Democrats will find it extremely hard to vote the dead and the institutionalized incompetent. But in very Democrat districts, they will, anyway.
So if Republicans send poll watchers to these Democrat districts, there are going to be some serious brawls. “So how come this poll provided 2000 ballots thought only 300 people entered and left the building during that time?”
Wow, a little bit much don’t you think? I’m sure you don’t realize it, but numerous Republicans have also lost their jobs and businesses in this obama economy.
As far as paying taxes, I’m assuming you mean federal or state taxes, because in reality, even those not working pay taxes of sort. They can’t buy non food items with food stamps, so they pay taxes on paper products such as toilet paper, cigarette and beer taxes as well.
Maybe you should rethink your hosier-than-thou attitude.
The greatest fear a democrat faces is an honest election.
Since it has been illegal to ask for I.D. how would one know this!!!
That's called an Illinois ID with a Chicago address.
That could get tricky. It could take the right to vote away from senior citizens, who tend to be more conservative voters.
If the right to vote were restricted to those who've been US citizens at least five years, it would stop a lot of mischief.
In OH last election, nobody's talking about what might have been the real problems. Vote-by-mail means anyone could get a ballot for someone, fill it in, get some sort of signature, and mail it. Another issue: early voting happens at polling places away from ones home polling place. Nobody really knows what happens to those votes when for instance voters from Cleveland's suburbs go to an east-side location to vote early.
To make it fair again, people would have to report to a local place on election day, and the votes would have to be counted without technology.
If it's local, people will keep an eye on it. And you know what? The less responsible voters probably won't be as likely to vote.
BINGO!
“who tend to vote Democratic”
They don’t vote “Democratic.” They vote Democrat.
TRUE THE VOTE!
The people who cannot pull it together to get a photo ID SHOULD NOT vote! I never understood the crazy liberal idea that everyone should vote. IMO, if you ever go on government assistance, you should lose your right to vote during the period of mooching and for several years after that. Also, while literacy tests were applied unfairly in the past, the concept behind them (if applied to everyone the same way) is 100% sound.
Dopey and cowardly.
The court cases in Ohio ( Melowese Richardson) and in Indiana recently should prove to the lunkheads that voter fraud is a problem. Voter ID ASAP. Obama is dumping millions into Kenya for voter ID. He seems to have no issue with having an ID. ;>)
Oh please, cry me a river.
Let them pay the tax when (if) they vote. Yes, a poll tax. Yes, you would still have to pay taxes even if you don't vote, but you don't pay the tax, you don't vote.
If the senior citizens are capable of supporting themselves, they vote.
As soon as you are on the dole, no vote.
We are now at a place where half the population is getting a government check and then gets to vote on how much the check is. The democrats now have a self-perpetuating constituency that has a vested interested in destroying this nation.
...new laws requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls after the Supreme Court decision striking down a portion of the Voting Rights Act.If such fraud is so rare, there's really no reason to oppose this.
In Mississippi we already had everything in place we had the petitions approved, voted on and passed by the people and then a tacit legislative approval but it was held up by the DOJ. Our goal has been to get Voter ID in place then reform absentee voting procedures. Both democrat candidates in the last election would not endorse Voter ID, both said we didn’t need it that the real fraud is in absentee voting. I bet they will both oppose any reform in absentee voting procedures. I don’t want to prevent any legal qualified voter from voting nor do I know anone who wants that. I want one legal voter to cast one legal vote. Our SOS says we have 5 to 6% election, voter fraud that makes my vote count .95%, I believe one of the few things I’m entitled to in life is a whole vote.
Should be: Democrats are concerned that the proposed changes will make it harder for many poor voters and members of minorities - who tend to vote Democratic - to cast their ballots multiple times or to vote for others or to vote when they are not qualified to do so!!!
BTW, just by seeing the article's headline on my "Pings" page, I guessed correctly in advance of seeing the source that it was from the New York Slimes. Their headline writers have a unique style which one can "smell" from a distance.
Among the states which were previously covered by the preclearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act, most had tended to vote GOP in statewide elections in the recent past. The key states in which the GOP may be helped by tamping down on fraud and cheating with voter ID laws will be Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and possibly Arizona.
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