Most people have ID. It's the photo ID they might not have. In various cities, there is no reason to have a driver's license which is what most people resort to.
Slightly off topic...I'm not sure if this went through or not, but I read in North Carolina, they require photo ID, but the legislature will not allow college ID's even from in state schools. That's insane and hopefully not true.
NC
just voted to require IDs ... so we have not been through an ID-required election yet.
Regardless, the powers that be have said that photo work IDs, photo school IDs, photo bank cards will all be accepted ... things pretty much everyone has ... as well as the more common driver's license, passports, etc.
The DMV says they will give
without cost an ID -- not a license, just an ID -- to anyone who comes in and says he or she needs it for voting purposes.
Furthermore, you can register to vote at the DMV while you're getting a license or state ID, so you can take care of BOTH the ID and the voter registration in one stop.
I really can't see how there's a problem. You know well in advance if you need an ID in your state. Even if a ride is a problem, you only have to do it ONCE, and then you're set for YEARS. If you value voting, I don't see it as a real issue.
Here's some more thoughts on how voting could be changed:
1.) Have one NATIONAL standard voting system that cannot be hacked, meaning paper or similar ballots that can be publicly tracked
2.) Have the voting sheets go to an independent third party
3.) Have those votes that the third party sees NOT tied to a candidate, so in other words they just see Option A, Option B, etc. and tally the votes that way, then those numbers get converted back to the official tally when they're brought back in.
I definitely think we should all vote the same way, and it should be more secure. I also don't understand how the party system helps us, but that's a whole other issue.
You'd be surprised. For people who stay at the low-wage same job for really long periods of time, or work under the table, and who drive without a license (common with those who cannot afford auto insurance but still need to work) ...
I can't support the ideas of avoiding taxes or driving without a license, so I really can't get behind these excuses.
Especially for a poor person, working under the table is like shooting yourself in the foot because it means you build up no Social Security, and these are probably the same people who are least likely to be prepared financially for retirement. You also have no legal work protections if you're working under the table; I had a high school student who was working for a small catering company -- she needed money, so she stayed out of work for a whole week helping the owner with a big job -- and then instead of paying her, the owner fired her. Yes, the owner stole a week's work from her, and the girl had NO recourse because she wasn't a legal employee. Similarly, a person who's working under the table can't collect workers' comp or unemployment insurance. No, working under the table is not something we should pass off as if it's just another choice; it places society's most venerable members in financial danger.
Similarly, driving without a license opens other people to the possibility of being involved in an uninsured motorist wreck. If you let your license lapse, you can't just go get a new one -- they make you pay for all the months you didn't have a license, so you can only dig yourself deeper and deeper in to a financial pit. It'd be smarter to turn in your license and make whatever transportation arrangements you can until you're able to drive legally again. Furthermore, you can't renew your car's license plate without having a license and insurance ... and the police
will catch you if you're driving on an expired plate. While it's a problem, people who can't afford to drive legally are better off making other arrangements -- because the fines will end up costing more than the license and insurance.
You should need an ID to vote in an election. You need an ID to order a drink, to buy cigarettes, to open a bank account, to apply for food stamps, apply for welfare, apply for social security, apply for unemployment, apply for a job, rent or buy a house, apply for a mortgage, drive/buy/rent a car, get on an airplane, get married, rent a hotel room, visit a casino, to buy certain flu medicine at the pharmacy, but you don't need one to vote? It makes no sense.
Yes, I have to show ID regularly for various reasons -- why should voting be an exception?
My uncle lived in the same house as his mom. She died right before the last presidential election. The night of voting my uncle went to vote and it said my dead grandmother had voted. Someone signed her name and everything. My boss's wife went to go vote once and it said that she had already voted. There is corruption. It exists.
This is just one reason I think showing an ID makes perfect sense.
Whether you agree or disagree with the ID-to-vote concept comes down to which of these two things you think is most prevalent /most damaging to society:
Possibility 1: If we do not require ID, it is very possible to "steal" someone else's vote and/or to be registered to vote in multiple places. I think we all want fairness in voting, and the idea that some people are getting multiple votes flies in the face of that fairness.
Possibility 2: If we do require votes, people living on the fringes of society may be unable to vote because they lack that ID.
Personally, I think the few, few people who don't have ID /really can't get ID with months of notice
probably don't value voting and/or wouldn't come to vote anyway -- I mean, you're talking about disenfranchised people here, people who most likely aren't fully functioning members of society. I don't mean to write them off with a "well, sucks to be them", I think they are fewer in number than the people who are willing (and able) to commit Voter Fraud by voting more than once.
The reality is that the number of people committing voter fraud is utterly minuscule, while the number of people denied their right to vote due to voter ID laws is significant. I'll take an insignificant number of extra votes over a large number of disenfranchised voters any day.
I think just the opposite is true: I think a fair number of people are committing Voter Fraud (why else would they post signs about it at the polling places?), while a very small number of potential voters don't have /aren't willing to get ID.
I think if you’ve made a conscious choice to operate outside the system, you need to live with that choice.
Yeah, if you're choosing to hide your under-the-table income, etc., it's a choice. The consequence may be losing your opportunity to vote.
If someone is unaware that they should have an ID or how to get one, then perhaps we should focus more on getting this info out there, as having an ID will likely aid them in far more things in life than just voting. Ignorance of laws and rules does not make one exempt from following them.
I agree with that -- no one should be denied the right to vote because of ignorance of how to get an ID, but I don't think how to get an ID is exactly a state secret.