What Type Of ID Should Be Required to Vote?

Parent Cafe
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<p>This discussion has taken over the Trayvon thread. An important discussion with some excellent points made, so I thought I would start it up here.</p>

<p>First of all, historically, photo IDs were not required for voting in many areas. A lot of the way we vote is flawed and antiquated with the updates showing even more flaws. </p>

<p>With identity theft becoming a huge issue these days, I’m inclined to support laws requiring an official ID of some sort for a person to vote. One argument has been that voter fraud has not been a big issue, but having lived in Chicago, I don’t agree with that one at all. Until we can verify the identities of who has been voting, it 's not possible to come up with any idea of whether this is a big issue or not in a lot of places. </p>

<p>The other question is what ID should be acceptable for voting? What IDs are acceptable for registering to vote? </p>

<p>Japan recently underwent a terrible scandal when the government decided to honor its oldest citizens. When officials went to personally seek these people, they found, to their horror, that a number of them were deceased. Some of their corpses were still around, unclaimed and cared for. Certainly unreported. The government pensions were, in many cases, claimed and cashed. Whether these deceased were also voting was not rmentioned. </p>

<p>It might well be time to account for each voter and get a picture ID for those who do not have driver’s license or other government photo id.</p>

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<p>Well, you are probably opening the proverbial can of worms with this topic!</p>

<p>I agree that there should be some sort of ID required to vote. I am always stunned when I can walk up to the voting booth and just say my name and not have to identify myself.</p>

<p>I believe that everyone can get some sort of ID, unless they are undocumented, and then they shouldn’t be voting. In CA you can get an ID through DMV, if you don’t have a driver’s license.</p>

<p>If we require ID to buy alcohol, to buy a house, to do anything of importance, we should certainly require ID for something as important as voting.</p>

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<p>I would be okay with a state issued ID. If a person cannot afford one, then they could be offered for free. I have read that the greater issue is getting access to birth records in order to obtain the state ID. I have to believe that the states and the counties can figure something out. </p>

<p>Does anyone know what kind of ID is required to obtain food stamps or welfare? If people are on these programs, then shouldn’t there be a legal ID for them somewhere in the system.</p>

<p>My goodness, any of our kids can post a pix on facebook and the facial recognition software easily identifies them. One would think we could come up with a way to make this work.</p>

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<p>In the olden days when neighbors knew neighbors and people didn’t move around much, IDs weren’t necessary. But now the people who man the polls have no idea who I am. </p>

<p>A photo ID requirement would remove some voting fraud. Obviously criminal poll workers could still vote for those who didn’t show up at the end of the day, or machines or ballots could be ‘lost’. </p>

<p>Absentee ballots are rife for fraud. I’ve read stories about nursing home employees voting for people with dementia by absentee ballot.</p>

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<p>A Photo ID…no matter your age, etc.</p>

<p>Sorry, just don’t see how a power bill can possibly prove that you are a registerd voter!</p>

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<p>you should have a photo ID. Every adult should have a government issued photo ID.</p>

<p>if you cannot afford a photo ID, the state should provide one for you.</p>

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Lots of our candidates have dementia ;). If I was voting for them I would want to do it by absentee ballot too!</p>

<p>Agree that a photo ID is not an onerous requirement. How many people don’t have one of some sort?</p>

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<p>How do you use a photo ID when you vote by mail, such was Washington State? What about US Military overseas? What about other kinds of absentee ballots?</p>

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<p>Government-issued? With current home address? (which is what more and more states are requiring). A LOT more than one would expect. As is the cost of implementing, educating, providing free IDs to those who cannot afford them… (we’re voting on it this Nov, cost to implement isexpected to be close to $20 million over 3 yrs (I’ll bet they do not include THAT on the ballot; but that’s at least better than one of the proposals last yr that would have cost over $80 million)</p>

<p>Not sure how a state has the right to mandate requirements for federal elections… perhaps state and federal elections should be held separately?</p>

<p>And “no” to absentee ballots, you need to show up in person like the rest of us…no matter how much of a burden that might be…;)</p>

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<p>Our state has passed a law (not yet in effect) that new voters have to present a birth certificate. When S turned 18 in November, I had him immediately register to vote because I couldn’t remember when the new law went into effect. Turns out not yet.</p>

<p>He has a driver’s license and a passport. He was not born in this state. I have his birth certificate somewhere; would have to find it. Don’t know if they keep it or if you just have to show it?</p>

<p>I don’t understand why a driver’s license and/or a passport aren’t enough. The law also includes the state providing free birth certificates if it’s for this purpose, but since he was born in a different state that doesn’t help. </p>

<p>S did get called for jury duty less than 6 weeks after he registered to vote. He didn’t mind; figured it would HAVE to be an excused abscence. But his pool number didn’t end up being called.</p>

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Since this is CC…what about college students who are attending school away from their state of residence?</p>

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<p>D was a senior in HS for the last presidential election but was not yet 18; so while several of her classmates got to vote, she couldn’t. This will be the first presidential election for both of my children, and they will both be out of state attending college. Need to start figuring out what they have to do to make the process go smoothly.</p>

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<p>When we go to our polling place, we don’t need ID or our voter registration card which was mailed prior to the election, but we do need to sign the voting register and our signature is compared to the one we gave when we registered to vote. </p>

<p>I agree that we should have a national ID card. There are some provisions for those who have missing birth records. However, there was a story about an elderly woman who moved from Ohio to Wisconsin to live with her daughter. She had an official state issued ID from Ohio, but Wisconsin wouldn’t accept that. And she did not have a birth certificate because when she was born, the births of black children often were not registered officially. </p>

<p>My own mother did not have a birth certificate because the courthouse where the records were kept burned down. She was able to qualify for social security and get a passport using her baptismal certificate and the first records when she started to work and gave her age. I think her birth was also entered in the family Bible. I imagine she would have trouble getting an official ID nowadays. </p>

<p>Se had a friend who was unable to get a driver’s license because he needed an official birth certificate. Somehow his birth had never been officially registered at the courthouse. All he had was the commemorative birth certificate given by the hospital. Apparently, it was an error on the part of the hospital. He was able to get an alternative certificate (not sure exactly what they called it), but since it didn’t look “right,” the DMV would not accept it. He’s in his early 20s.</p>

<p>So it’s not as easy as it sounds.</p>

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<p>I am in the camp that an official state-issued ID should NOT be a requirement, and if it is, then it should be the government’s responsibility to provide one to every person of voting age at no cost. </p>

<p>I can tell you that it is not easy to jump through the hoops of getting an ID, at least in my state, if you do not have access to a vehicle. It also costs money that many people don’t have. To give you an idea of my experience getting a legal ID, and it was not so bad because I had my grandmother with me, I had to rifle through my entire house to find enough forms of ID to get it. This meant going through boxes of papers to find old college bills with my name on them, and then fortunately I had my high school diploma and social security card. I did not have my birth certificate however because it was destroyed by my parents’ basement flooding, so I had to go to the local county office to get a copy made. This required a ride to the building where they print them, and $15 for the paper. Then of course I had to go to the DMV to get my permit. </p>

<p>So with my retired grandmother willing to drive, this whole endeavor still took about half a day. Since it was during the summer while I was in college, I had the luxury of having a weekday in which I was able to do this. Assuming that I had to work during the day, getting my ID would’ve required likely taking at least a couple hours off work. Then, if I didn’t have access to a car, we’ll go on the cheap side for transportation and say that I took the bus. Bus fare is $1.50 here, so that would be one trip from my house to the county office, one trip from the office to the DMV, and one trip from the DMV back home. So $15 plus another $4.50 in bus fare plus whatever the cost of the ID is. It starts to add up pretty quickly. Of course, if you have to take a cab to any of these destinations due to inadequate public transportation, things get even worse. </p>

<p>I don’t necessarily have the problem with the idea of having to jump through some hoops, but my big issue with this is that the disenfranchisement that results does not hit equally. This most certainly would disproportionately knock out elderly, poor, and working voters from the ballot, and I feel uncomfortable with any regulation that prevents a certain subset of people from voting more than others. I am much less concerned about voting fraud than I am about disenfranchisement of voters. Nobody should be denied the right to vote because of others abusing the system. </p>

<p>As for absentee ballots, I think they definitely need to continue. I have used them as a college student, as I did not have access to transportation to make the trip home to vote, and it was important to me to vote in the district where my permanent address was because the outcome of the election would affect my family. </p>

<p>However, I think that the most compelling argument for absentee ballots is soldiers. If they can fight and die for our country, they should undoubtedly have a say in the election of leaders who will potentially send them to fight.</p>

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[QUOTE=scansmom
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Government-issued? With current home address? (which is what more and more states are requiring). A LOT more than one would expect.

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Since one wouldn’t know what I would expect, that doesn’t tell us much. In this state you need an ID to buy liquor in most places. You often need ID to buy cigarettes. You need a passport to cross the border (live in a border city). You need a license to drive a car, and in this area most people have needed to own a car or at least drive one at some time in their lives. Probably most adults here have drivers licenses. I’m not really buying the idea that there are wads of adults running around who don’t already need an ID of some sort.</p>

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<p>My state has a strict voter ID law and is also one of the states that decided to completly comply with the Real ID laws that passed after 9/11 (most states have delayed or opted out because of the bureacratic nightmare).
I had to go through a huge hassle when I moved back to IN from CA. My CA DL listed my first name, middle name and last name. My SS card had first name, middle name and last name. When I couldn’t find my birth certificate I ordered another one from my state and the middle name was missing…gone. Now, I know it was once on there, otherwise it wouldn’t have been on my SS card. As a result of this, IN would not issue me a DL. The name had to match exactly on all documents. Nevermind that I had baptism records and a valid passport. Because of this discepancy, I had to pay for a legal name change to correct my birth certificate. I used this opportunity to switch first and middle names since I had to spend $250 fixing this. That same year, thousands of women were unable to renew their licenses because the computers had no proof of name changes based on marriage licenses. Even when SS cards were produced with the correct names people still had to bring in certified copies of marriage licenses. </p>

<p>Now I am not saying that everyone will have problems, but when you have a poor person who has moved often, has lost original documents or has come up with useless bureaucrats that can’t find the forests through the trees, we forget that not all people in today’s society can afford the time away from work or the hassle to get everything just so. </p>

<p>And voter registration is down in my state since this passed. Apparently, so is driving without a license…When we have the ability to link databases among states, verify SS# for all citizens and residents (not just taxpayers) then we will be able to see this as something other than a way to discriminate. In 10-15 years it will be easier. Even now these mistakes are being handled as more people uncover problems while e-filing tax returns. But we are not there yet.</p>

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<p>These laws are allegedly meant to prevent voter fraud – where someone impersonates someone else, votes in the name of a dead person, etc. Can someone please show me a study which demonstrates that this is a widespread problem? The federal Department of Justice found a grand total of 86 cases over 4 years. That’s pretty thin evidence when we’re talking about raising a barrier to exercising a fundamental constitutional right.</p>

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<p>Personally, I think the technology is there or soon will be such that we can arrive at the voting booth, stick our hand in a machine, have our prints automatically verified, and then proceed to vote electronically. At some point most people will vote from their smart phone, home computer, or ipad. Some process of identification will be developed, like pressing your hand against the screen to register your prints. People without the means to do so will still be able to proceed in the old-fashioned manner. If we can think it up, it can be done.</p>

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<p>Voter fraud has little to do with the real reasons behind passing these laws; but, unfortunately you cannot have a serious discussion about this topic without bringing politics (a taboo subject on CC) or ALEC, into the discussion. </p>

<p>The good news: Last month, two judges struck down Wisc’s (ALEC model) photo ID law as unconstitutional. One of the most prohibitive photo ID laws in the country. “[Defendants’ argument that the fundamental right to vote must yield to legislative fiat turns our constitutional scheme of democratic government squarely on its head” </p>

<p>[Second</a> Judge Strikes Down WI’s ALEC-Inspired Voter ID Law | Center for Media and Democracy](<a href=“http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/03/11350/second-judge-strikes-down-wis-alec-inspired-voter-id-law]Second”>http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/03/11350/second-judge-strikes-down-wis-alec-inspired-voter-id-law)</p>

<p>The fact that certain industries require photo IDs to control access to or use of certain products and privileges, many of which are regulated by law for public safety reasons, has absolutely no bearing on whether photo ID’s should be required to exercise your constitutional right to vote. Apples and oranges. It’s more than just a question of whether to require some form of photo ID but whether and how that requirement might serve to disenfrancise any members or groups of society.</p>

<p>I would also agree that as technology develops, the current issues surrounding photo ID’s will no longer exist and there will be much better Big Brother methods available to monitor and control our every action, without even leaving home. But right now, given how easy identity theft is, the possiblity of voter fraud via the internet seems extremely great. If we can think it up, it WILL be done - when it comes to anything fraudulent or illegal. ;)</p>

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<p>When I was in college, I just registered to vote there. Since I lived in that city most of the time while in college, it made sense to vote there.</p>

<p>But then there was some other thread about some states trying to make it difficult for college students to vote locally, usually for obvious partisan reasons.</p>