It's Still A Poll Tax, Part Trois.

Zeke -- how would you "check out" the provisional votes from people with no ID? You can check the name against the voter rolls, but if they don't have an ID, then how do you know the right person voted under that name? Doesn't that open it up, in theory, for people to take stewardship of the votes of those who aren't going to exercise them? Advocacy groups buying the right to vote for someone who won't? Obviously this is highly exaggerated, but I'm trying to wrap my brain around the concept. And wouldn't taking the vote "provisionally" in a way discriminate against those with no ID?

 

Good question, Meat, and I'm not exactly sure what they do to check, but most states already have a provisional ballot process in place. First one that popped up on google was Pennsylvania.

http://www.hava.state.pa.us/hava/cwp/view.asp?a=1187&q=442284&havaNav=%7C

And you're right that this does cause its own problems. Namely, both sides send people to their opponents top polling places to "challenge" anyone who is not on the rolls from voting last time. These people -- in some states -- are then forced to complete provisional ballots, which the tricksters hope get thrown out on a technicality.

Another problem the Georgia law runs into is not recognizing tribal ID, IIRC from the first time around.

If you're really interested, go to your states SOS web site and check the proof of identification required for an absentee ballot against what you need to show at the polls. Then tell me why anyone would even try to cast a fake ballot in person when it's so easy to do through the mail.

 

Zeke: I'd be all for doing away with absentee ballots, or at least a serious overhaul of the process. We've got embassies everywhere from England to Antartica to Neptune, hell, open them up as voting precincts on Election Day. And if they're not out of country, I dunno, maybe have an early Election Day and open up a limited number of polling places, and if they can't make it, then fuck 'em.

 

Careful Meat.

You start talking like that, the next thing that comes up is going to be, "Why do you hate our troops?"

Which is the card that gets played every time anyone tries to make it tougher to vote absentee.

 

FH --refresh my memory. That was because the polling places that were going to be open early were in urban areas and thus, Democratic strongholds, right?

I'm not sure how I feel about that one, but at least it errs on the side of getting more people to vote.

 

I'm in favor of the paper ballot everywhere, but it is becoming increasingly less convienent in the larger states.

I'll have to look up why exactly that Maryland statute was struck down...

 

A thought from the Highway 101 area.
The right to vote is a RIGHT, guaranteed by the government of our country for many many decades.
One's supposition to get into an R-rated movie, to a bar with liquor, to get a driver's licence, to get into the military is a privilege.
Rights are rights. Let those who have them, use them.
And for the record, I want to corner my views to this voting discussion only.

 

It just dawned on me, when I voted yesterday I didn't show any ID. Just gave them my address and name and they gave me a ballot. I could have easily gone back and voted for my brother, I saw my parents had already voted and my brother didn't take out an absentee ballot.

And at the latest place I got a job (newspaper), all I had to show was a passport.

 

It doesn't bother anyone that you could be stripping someone of the most important right we have in this country because of the crookedness of others?

Somehow, that doesn't seem right to me.

You want to require ID cards, you gotta make 'em free and easy to get. It can not cost to vote in this country. It just can't.

And besides, you all know who is being targeted with this. The guy in the business suit who's voting during his lunch break, that sumbitch has ID. And everybody knows it. The black guy who stepped off the 2:30 bus, he might not. There might be a few cases of people committing voter fraud by lining up people to vote in several precincts on election day, but it's nowhere even close to the number of people who will be turned away if you force them to buy a voter ID card.