The Left’s obsession with voter ID laws amounts to “disenfranchisement hysteria,” according to Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler (R).
Photo ID requirements for voting, whether instituted in America or anywhere in the world, are “correlated with increased voter turnout, substantial increased voter turnout, and a whole lot of good things and I think that shows that some of this disenfranchisement hysteria is, frankly, frankly silly,” Gessler said during a panel discussion on electoral integrity at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., on July 26 of this year.
Voter ID advocates like the good-government group True the Vote have long maintained that asking voters to prove they are citizens is essential to combat voter fraud. Left-wingers, on the other hand, say such requirements are unfair to people who are too lazy to obtain acceptable forms of government-issued identification.
Gessler praised True the Vote, a good-government group that is on the front lines of the battle for clean, honest elections. True the Vote is one of those groups that liberals hate and that voter-fraud deniers like left-wing journalist Brentin Mock routinely smear. Without any credible evidence whatsoever, Mock has accused True the Vote, which merely watches polling places to keep officials honest, of trying “to strip voters of election rights.”
Gessler seems justified worrying about fraud at the voting booth. On this Election Day there is news of widespread voter fraud, malfunctioning voting machines, and military uniform-wearing New Black Panther Party members reemerging at Philadelphia polling places. Last year, Gessler released a study showing that nearly 5,000 illegal aliens voted in the U.S. Senate election in Colorado two years ago.
“We’ve got bloated and inaccurate voter rolls. We have a very loose honor system when it comes to voting in this country, both in the registration and voting as well; often times, for example, no forms of ID, or no photo ID required,” he said. “Over time we’ve seen the increased use of mail ballots which, while it has many good points, also increases a very common avenue for voter fraud.”
Those who oppose voter ID laws embrace “a culture of see no evil, hear no evil,” and their “argument is ironically propagated by some of the same people who see massive corruption when it comes to a campaign finance system.”
Such people, Gessler said, “see massive corruption in the ballot initiative process, but when it comes to voting in the polling booth, our hearts become pure, without malice,” according to voter ID opponents.
“I think we all want to believe that everyone is of good faith and willing to do the right thing, but I think Americans intuitively understand that in any human endeavor, and elections are hard, complicated human endeavors, in any human endeavor, there is a small proportion of people who will when tempted do the wrong thing, who when tempted, will break the law. And political power, as gained through elections, is a temptation and that tempts people to do bad things.”
Real problems with voting as it currently stand in the US:
*Early voting leaves a lotta time for ballots cast before the Constitutionally-mandated day to be monkeyed with. It also allows for duplicate voting (on purpose, or accidentally), if not carefully monitored.
*Electronic voting machines can, in theory, display confirmation of one vote, while registering another to the record internally, either by error or design.
*Lax/nonexistent voter ID laws allow for anyone to enter a polling place and vote, regardless of eligibility.
Even in an environment in which all parties are well-intentioned, these issues could lead to invalid voting results; every single invalid vote negates a valid one, and THAT is disenfranchisement. In reality, there are far too many people who willingly and even eagerly strive to game the system to tips things in their own party’s favor, and I have yet to see documented any such instance which does not involve Democrats. =’[.]‘=
Early voting — except possibly in the week before election day — is a bad idea, as it helps increase the power of incumbency.
The environment in which “all parties are equally sincere” is non-existant.
Fine and noble thought, however…
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Scott Gessler is going thru hell in Colorado right now for trying to clean up voter rolls, just heard this week that they are suing him for something, http://www.journal-advocate.com/sterling-local_news/ci_21938942/ethics-commission-launches-probe-gessler-over-spending?source=most_viewed He is getting the Sarah Palin, sue for any frivolous reason…
Natalie Meyer was Secretary of State in Colorado from 1983 to 1995. She was then, and remains, a very conservative Republican. But she never forgot that she was in office to represent all citizens, not just fellow Republicans. She never had the issues with illegal voters that Mr. Gessler seems to fantasize about. Mr. Gessler’s well publicized hunts for illegal voters found not 5,000 that his study claims, but less than 200. And some of those persons never voted at all.
The state ethics committee voted 4-0 to investigate Mr. Gessler’s finances. That includes two Republicans. In general, Mr. Gessler seems more interested in the agenda of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) than in serving Colorado citizens.
Quite frankly, I wish that “voter ID” DID disenfranchise certain people, because I don’t like the way they vote, and I don’t like the way they vote because it has helped bring ruin on the country.
I don’t like motor-voter, real early voting, e-mail voting (except in cases of disaster or severe physical issues) or any other conveniences for people who are insufficiently motivated to vote. As to the ID issue: it is ludicrous to think that a majority of the “poor” don’t have driver’s licenses. If they’re driving without one, then they are breaking the law, and shouldn’t be allowed to vote for that reason.
It seems that the more “democracy” and “rights” we get, the less free we are.
Liberals and Democrats are clearly in favor of illegal voters participating in elections now. ‘Disenfranchisement’ of ineligible voters, suppression of illegal voting, is exactly what voter ID accomplishes. I don’t see why the Liberals can’t understand that, especially now that are the majority and have nothing to lose from requiring voter ID.
Voter ID, as well as severe punishment even for attempting to defraud the vote, are good ideas. Don’t remember who said first that “the bad guys make better time when you’re chasing them”, but it’s true. True The Vote! Get it done!
What I find interesting is if you go to a federal court house you need photo ID to get in. You need more ID to check oput a book from the library than to vote! What?
If you ever had any doubts about whether voterID was a good idea, all you need to do is look at the Minnesota Senate race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman in 2008. The election was finally adjudicated by the Mn Supreme Court, awarding Mr Franken the Senatorial seat in Washington, with a winning margin of 312 votes. It has subsequently come to light that there were at least 313 illegal votes – 113 of those illegal voters have been convicted, and as of Oct 2011, there were a minimum of 200 cases being actively prosecuted.
Subtracting those known illegal votes from Franken’s margin of victory reduces his winning majority to a losing result. Had all the facts been known at the time the Mn Supreme Court issued its opinion in favor of Mr Franken, they would have ruled in favor on Mr Coleman instead.
One consequence of Mr Franken’s illegitimate election was that he provided the margin of victory in the US Senate for passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; if Coleman had taken the seat that was rightfully his, he has said he would have voted against it, and Obamacare would not have passed.
Elections have consequences. Illegal elections have even larger ones!
The entire ID/disenfranchisement issue resonates very strongly with me for two reasons:
1) I live in a rural — a *very* rural — area, yet when I go to vote, I solmenly show my ID to the clerk — who happens to be a friend who lives not a mile away, and whom I’ve known for years. She carefully examines the ID. It is part of the process that makes voting a solemn occasion.
2) Throughout my life, I’ve met and come to known a number of people who grew up in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Soviet Union and such like places. I’ve heard their stories. If someone want to whine to me about disenfrancisement, they’ll have to get in line behind Bela and Ludmilia and Alexandr and all the rest.
Dang, all this whining just makes me furious. If they’re serious about their complaints, they’re just silly. If it’s all just a screen for manipulating the election process, it’s shameful and just a fraction of an inch from the legal definition of attempting to subvert the Constitution.
Texas already have than voter ID law in place but the election stealer GOP want to have poor people paid thousand’s dollar for special ID and papers just to vote. Out of 100 million voter in the president race there is only 300 cases of voter faud nationwide, over where old people who forgot they voter alreadly that day, not than big ploblen like the racist GOP and teabagger who donot want fair election.
A few observations from the United Kingdom. We do not have voter ID, at least not where I have lived. The only parts where there could be problems would be on the Celtic Rim(Wales, Scotland) In Wales surnames such as Jones, Evams, and Williams are quite common; in Scotland, especially in the constituency of Na h-Eianan Siar[The Western Isles], surnames such as MacDonald and MacLeod, both in various Anglicised spellings, are so common that in the phone book it is common to use nicknames to distinguish them. But they are exceptional. In inner cities, where there are substantial Muslim communities, it is theoretically possible to confuse people with similar names.
If anyone is interested I suggest they look up http://www.parliament.uk, clicking on the panel “Members House of Commons”. They are sure to find it an eye-opener, if only for the wide range of percentage voter turnouts.