Republicans Cheating at the Polls Again?

In the wake of Republican victories in the 2010 elections, Republican-controlled statehouses around the country have been rewriting voting laws to require photo identification at the polls, reduce the number of days of early voting or tighten registration rules.

Republican legislators say the new rules, which have advanced in 13 states in the past two months, offer a practical way to weed out fraudulent votes and preserve the integrity of the ballot box. Democrats say the changes have little to do with fraud prevention and more to do with placing obstacles in the way of possible Democratic voters, including young people and minorities.

Click to expand...

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/refer...oter_registration_and_requirements/index.html

How can anyone object to preventing fraud?

I will re quote since apparently today your reading skillz are lacking, Corwin!

Democrats say the changes have little to do with fraud prevention and more to do with placing obstacles in the way of possible Democratic voters, including young people and minorities.

Click to expand...

It's just about showing a valid photo id. It think more countries should adopt it. A photo id i srather easy to get.

Not it's not, id laws are just part of it. Read the whole thing.

If you look at the whole set of new laws, the only thing they have in common, is making it harder for people who typically vote democratic. Similar changes in state laws have been a coordinated throughout the country by Republicans at the national level.

Indeed, the obvious goal is to disenfranchise thousands of traditionally democrat voters from countless Chicagoland cemetaries.

Thrasher said:

Not it's not, id laws are just part of it. Read the whole thing.

If you look at the whole set of new laws, the only thing they have in common, is making it harder for people who typically vote democratic. Similar changes in state laws have been a coordinated throughout the country by Republicans at the national level.

Click to expand...

I read the whole thing but what are the other laws? All i read is that you need photo ids.

Apparently you didn't.

reduce the number of days of early voting or tighten registration rules.

Click to expand...

ids are traditionally tougher for the poor to get as transportation is sometimes and issue as is challenges to being registered correctly as many young and poor folks more quite a bit and they often will only vote in primary elections if at all.

true if you really want to vote you most likely will be able to but its nieve to think that these aren't gimmicks to play the odds and discourage as many folks as possible from voting. old people have all the time in the world and they tend to lean more conservative so this strategy will never hurt republicans. personally if they do this i think they should also have a mental competancy screenings as well since i'm sure there are some old folks, obviously not a high number, so seniale they just go and vote out of pure instinct with no thought invovled.

the real problem that is or should be illegal is voter "caging" which is somewhat similar though basically a racial profiling that targets certain demographics or communites and challenges peoples registration which leads to mistakes on everyones end at the polling place and people either not getting to vote or have their votes not counted. and we don't need to add the anctedote of robocalls telling people to vote on the wrong day which are of an infinately higher number than dead folks casting votes.

Thrasher said:

Apparently you didn't. :rolleyes
reduce the number of days of early voting or tighten registration rules.:

Click to expand...

What is the problem with that?

I personally think voting should be made intentionally more difficult to discourage lazy and 'whimsical' voters and also tighten up possible security breaches.

When I clicked on this thread I thought it might be about the blatant election fraud in Maryland but this is really nit picking and wrongheaded to boot.

Khor1255 said:

What is the problem with that?

I personally think voting should be made intentionally more difficult to discourage lazy and 'whimsical' voters and also tighten up possible security breaches.

When I clicked on this thread I thought it might be about the blatant election fraud in Maryland but this is really nit picking and wrongheaded to boot.

Click to expand...

I agree. I think people should abstain from voting if they have no clue about the candidates or the issues. I think we are probably in the minority though.

Corwin said:

How can anyone object to preventing fraud?

Click to expand...

It's neither one or the other it's a very common tactic to accuse someone else of the very thing that you are doing. Heck I see it on this website all the time with politely worded trollbait posts.

Khor1255 said:

What is the problem with that?

I personally think voting should be made intentionally more difficult to discourage lazy and 'whimsical' voters and also tighten up possible security breaches.

Click to expand...

Problem is that the most affected are poor and minorities. Are those the lazy and 'whimsical' voters you speak about?

curious said:

ids are traditionally tougher for the poor to get

Click to expand...

I don't support these laws, but who honestly doesn't have some kind of ID?

Unless you are referring to homeless voters?

zahratustra said:

Problem is that the most affected are poor and minorities. Are those the lazy and 'whimsical' voters you speak about?

Click to expand...

Where is the proof of this? And how are we determining they are unfairly affected?

But answering the first question is good enough for a start.

Corwin said:

How can anyone object to preventing fraud?

Click to expand...

Because voter fraud in USA is almost non existent? In 2010 in the whole of the USA only about 120 people were charged with voter fraud and 86 were convicted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/washington/12fraud.html?pagewanted=all

Khor1255 said:

Where is the proof of this? And how are we determining they are unfairly affected?

But answering the first question is good enough for a start.

Click to expand...

http://www4.uwm.edu/eti/2007/VoterID.htm

"…Percentages of voting age Wisconsin adults without valid driver's licenses in 2002 compared to the 2000 Census for similar age cohorts. Statewide, 59% of Hispanic females, 55% of African American males, 49% of African American females, and 46% of Hispanic males, compared to 17% of white males and 17% of white females, were without a valid driver's license.

For young adults ages 18-24, 78% of African American males and 66% of African American females in Wisconsin were without a valid driver's license.

The percentage (93%) of college students living in Marquette University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee residence halls without a driver's license for those addresses.

The percentage (82%) of 18, 19, and 20 year olds without a driver's license at their ZIP code for college student-intensive neighborhoods in Eau Claire, LaCrosse, Madison, Milwaukee, Oshkosh, Platteville, River Falls, Stevens Point, Stout, and Whitewater, Wisconsin…"

http://faculty.washington.edu/mbarreto/papers/PS_VoterID.pdf

GameBrian said:

Heck I see it on this website all the time with politely worded trollbait posts.

Click to expand...

Hmmm, would that be "all the time" since today when you joined? Kinda like Andhaira--not only a lousy troll, but a stupid troll to boot.

dteowner said:

Hmmm, would that be "all the time" since today when you joined? Kinda like Andhaira—not only a lousy troll, but a stupid troll to boot.

Click to expand...

Here's a good case in point.

zahratustra said:

http://www4.uwm.edu/eti/2007/VoterID.htm

"…Percentages of voting age Wisconsin adults without valid driver's licenses in 2002 compared to the 2000 Census for similar age cohorts. Statewide, 59% of Hispanic females, 55% of African American males, 49% of African American females, and 46% of Hispanic males, compared to 17% of white males and 17% of white females, were without a valid driver's license.

For young adults ages 18-24, 78% of African American males and 66% of African American females in Wisconsin were without a valid driver's license.

The percentage (93%) of college students living in Marquette University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee residence halls without a driver's license for those addresses.

The percentage (82%) of 18, 19, and 20 year olds without a driver's license at their ZIP code for college student-intensive neighborhoods in Eau Claire, LaCrosse, Madison, Milwaukee, Oshkosh, Platteville, River Falls, Stevens Point, Stout, and Whitewater, Wisconsin…"

http://faculty.washington.edu/mbarreto/papers/PS_VoterID.pdf

Click to expand...

That's it? Really?


Fun fact, you can get an ID card that is not a driver's licence for way less money than a drivers licence. I have no problem limiting voting to only those people with enough ambition and civic responsibility to get an ID card.

Last time I heard about an actual price it was a little over $20. If that's too much to pay for a valid ID (that can help you get a lot done in the real world) so you can vote than yes, I'd count you as lazy and whimsical in general.

We can live without such votes.

It's not like they are impeding these people from actually voting. They are just making it harder for multiple votes from the same unverifyable person as well as insuring people who give at least a passing amount of importance to their political system are also those who get to vote.

I have zero problem with that.

Is there anything else to suggest these bills are intentionally targeting young people or minorities? These links just reflect a correlation that could easily be corrected if these people were more civically responsible.