Wrath of Blog

I don’t really see why anyone would think it’s a good idea to put up barriers to voting. What, we’re having trouble with turnouts that are too good? Or is it truly that it’s a barrier to certain votes?

I cannot see that voter fraud is really a reasonable excuse for such a bill. Is there truly evidence that voter fraud is such a significant problem in this state that we would start infringing on constitutional rights to solve the problem?

I cannot see how this could stand under constitutional scrutiny, and I think it smacks of being exclusionary. While it is true that we are entering an age of increased documentary reliance, it is naive and ignorant to assume that all citizens conduct their lives based on authority-issued documentation. It was not so long ago that it was unusual to even have a social security card or a birth certificate. Remember?

I think that you cannot reasonably require any kind of identification forms to get access to the right to vote when it is not law that you must have those identification forms in the first place.  No one in the United States is currently required to have a birth certificate, a marriage license, a drivers license, or a photo ID of any kind, even though the choice not to have them may deprive you of certain benefits. It remains our choice to have them or not.

Passing this law effectively makes it illegal to vote if you don’t have this documentation. And that is terrible because the right to vote, the right to register our opinions and choose our leaders, is the most basic of our rights as Americans, as citizens of a democracy. How many disenfranchised groups have fought for that right, because it is the foundation of our citizenship? And now we want to restrict it?

I can’t see that this Voter ID bill is a good idea.