Question for those who support Voter ID laws in the US

[Loren Pechtel]

Sounds good to me.

Once getting an ID is not burdensome, then what would be the argument against wanting an ID to vote?

My argument would be that every voter should be treated equally. If someone submits an absentee ballot without photo ID and that ballot is counted, then nobody should be held to a more stringent requirement just because that person showed up in person at a polling station and cast a ballot. When people register to vote, that should be the point at which photo IDs are required. At the polling station, a signature that matches the one on file should be all that is necessary. Unless and until there is some significant evidence of a need for photo IDs. In that case, there would need to be a more stringent method of checking the validity of absentee and mail-in ballots.

This is an excellent point. I wish every state would simply go with mandatory mail in voting. For some reason (like most of the states that changed their gerrymandering laws) it's mostly progressive states that actually encourage their citizens to vote AND make it easy to do so.

I don't like it.

Boss: Bring your ballots to the office and give them to me or you don't have jobs anymore.

 

[RavenSky]

The Randolph County elections board is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss a proposal that would eliminate seven of nine polling locations in the county, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. Included in the proposed closures is Cuthbert Middle School where nearly 97 percent of voters are black.

"There is strong evidence that this was done with intent to make it harder for African Americans," ACLU of Georgia attorney Sean Young said. The ACLU has sent a letter to the elections board demanding that the polling places remain open and has filed open records requests for information about the proposal to close the polling places.

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/08/15/us/ap-us-polling-places-proposed-closures.html

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

This is an excellent point. I wish every state would simply go with mandatory mail in voting. For some reason (like most of the states that changed their gerrymandering laws) it's mostly progressive states that actually encourage their citizens to vote AND make it easy to do so.

I don't like it.

Boss: Bring your ballots to the office and give them to me or you don't have jobs anymore.

If I recall correctly (it may be an urban legend) that is why secret ballots were firmly instituted in the US. Any Union soldier that didn't vote for Lincoln got sent to the front lines.

 

[Trausti]

The Randolph County elections board is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss a proposal that would eliminate seven of nine polling locations in the county, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. Included in the proposed closures is Cuthbert Middle School where nearly 97 percent of voters are black.

"There is strong evidence that this was done with intent to make it harder for African Americans," ACLU of Georgia attorney Sean Young said. The ACLU has sent a letter to the elections board demanding that the polling places remain open and has filed open records requests for information about the proposal to close the polling places.

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/08/15/us/ap-us-polling-places-proposed-closures.html

Eh? Randolph County is predominately black. It is a small county with a population all of 7,700 - perhaps half of whom are registered to vote. Reducing voting sites to accommodate for the small population may just make fiscal sense.

 

[Copernicus]

This is an excellent point. I wish every state would simply go with mandatory mail in voting. For some reason (like most of the states that changed their gerrymandering laws) it's mostly progressive states that actually encourage their citizens to vote AND make it easy to do so.

I don't like it.

Boss: Bring your ballots to the office and give them to me or you don't have jobs anymore.

If I recall correctly (it may be an urban legend) that is why secret ballots were firmly instituted in the US. Any Union soldier that didn't vote for Lincoln got sent to the front lines.

How old were you at the time this happened? It may well be that your memory is a little foggy after so many decades.

 

[Arctish]

The Randolph County elections board is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss a proposal that would eliminate seven of nine polling locations in the county, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. Included in the proposed closures is Cuthbert Middle School where nearly 97 percent of voters are black.

"There is strong evidence that this was done with intent to make it harder for African Americans," ACLU of Georgia attorney Sean Young said. The ACLU has sent a letter to the elections board demanding that the polling places remain open and has filed open records requests for information about the proposal to close the polling places.

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/08/15/us/ap-us-polling-places-proposed-closures.html

Eh? Randolph County is predominately black. It is a small county with a population all of 7,700 - perhaps half of whom are registered to vote. Reducing voting sites to accommodate for the small population may just make fiscal sense.

You know what else makes fiscal sense? Opening the polling station for just 3 hours on election day. That would save on electricity. And only having one voting machine per station which would greatly reduce wear-and-tear on the voting machine inventory, so less maintenance costs. If you figure each voter will take about a minute to read the ballot and make their selections, that's about 180 ballots per station per election. You could save a HUGE amount of money on printing and shipping costs.

Sure, the whole democracy thing kinda falls by the wayside, and the libtard snowflakes would all have meltdowns about Constitutional rights and representative government and blah blah blah, but it makes fiscal sense.

Oh, and it would create jobs, too! Those lines at the polling stations would probably get really long so people with a little extra cash would probably hire day workers to hold a place in line and call them if/when it looks like they're going to get in the door. The poor are going to be standing in line anyway, so they might as well make a buck.

 

[Worldtraveller]

This is an excellent point. I wish every state would simply go with mandatory mail in voting. For some reason (like most of the states that changed their gerrymandering laws) it's mostly progressive states that actually encourage their citizens to vote AND make it easy to do so.

I don't like it.

Boss: Bring your ballots to the office and give them to me or you don't have jobs anymore.

Ballots are mailed to your home. You fill it out, and put it in the mailbox.

If anyone's boss said the above, a quick call to the elections office would not end well for that boss.

Why do you want to disenfranchise people over your imaginary fantasies? The fact is, it works and has been demonstrated in many states.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

This is an excellent point. I wish every state would simply go with mandatory mail in voting. For some reason (like most of the states that changed their gerrymandering laws) it's mostly progressive states that actually encourage their citizens to vote AND make it easy to do so.

I don't like it.

Boss: Bring your ballots to the office and give them to me or you don't have jobs anymore.

Ballots are mailed to your home. You fill it out, and put it in the mailbox.

If anyone's boss said the above, a quick call to the elections office would not end well for that boss.

Why do you want to disenfranchise people over your imaginary fantasies? The fact is, it works and has been demonstrated in many states.

People dependent on their job would likely go along.

 

[Copernicus]

Ballots are mailed to your home. You fill it out, and put it in the mailbox.

If anyone's boss said the above, a quick call to the elections office would not end well for that boss.

Why do you want to disenfranchise people over your imaginary fantasies? The fact is, it works and has been demonstrated in many states.

People dependent on their job would likely go along.

This is an utterly absurd fantasy. Any employer who tried to pull such a stunt would be violating the law.

Vote-by-mail works. It saves the government a lot of money, and it makes voting a lot easier. The main thing I don't like about it is that the results in close elections come in much more slowly, since ballots only need be postmarked on the day of the election. However, a lot of people do vote before election day. I used to be unhappy about the fact that a lot of people did not want to pay the postage or take the trouble to find a dropbox, but that objection is now fixed. The state provides postage-paid envelopes.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Ballots are mailed to your home. You fill it out, and put it in the mailbox.

If anyone's boss said the above, a quick call to the elections office would not end well for that boss.

Why do you want to disenfranchise people over your imaginary fantasies? The fact is, it works and has been demonstrated in many states.

People dependent on their job would likely go along.

This is an utterly absurd fantasy. Any employer who tried to pull such a stunt would be violating the law.

Vote-by-mail works. It saves the government a lot of money, and it makes voting a lot easier. The main thing I don't like about it is that the results in close elections come in much more slowly, since ballots only need be postmarked on the day of the election. However, a lot of people do vote before election day. I used to be unhappy about the fact that a lot of people did not want to pay the postage or take the trouble to find a dropbox, but that objection is now fixed. The state provides postage-paid envelopes.

Of course they would be violating the law. Doesn't mean they wouldn't do it.

 

[Rhea]

This is an utterly absurd fantasy. Any employer who tried to pull such a stunt would be violating the law.

Vote-by-mail works. It saves the government a lot of money, and it makes voting a lot easier. The main thing I don't like about it is that the results in close elections come in much more slowly, since ballots only need be postmarked on the day of the election. However, a lot of people do vote before election day. I used to be unhappy about the fact that a lot of people did not want to pay the postage or take the trouble to find a dropbox, but that objection is now fixed. The state provides postage-paid envelopes.

Of course they would be violating the law. Doesn't mean they wouldn't do it.

It would be so astonishingly easy to catch them, they would not do it.
The laws with the most likely catch and the most severe punishment, are the ones that get followed.

ALl a person would have to do is turn on their phone recorder the day after the election and wait for someone to ask them where their ballot is.

This fantasy is dumb.

 

[RavenSky]

The Randolph County elections board is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss a proposal that would eliminate seven of nine polling locations in the county, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. Included in the proposed closures is Cuthbert Middle School where nearly 97 percent of voters are black.

"There is strong evidence that this was done with intent to make it harder for African Americans," ACLU of Georgia attorney Sean Young said. The ACLU has sent a letter to the elections board demanding that the polling places remain open and has filed open records requests for information about the proposal to close the polling places.

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/08/15/us/ap-us-polling-places-proposed-closures.html

Eh? Randolph County is predominately black. It is a small county with a population all of 7,700 - perhaps half of whom are registered to vote. Reducing voting sites to accommodate for the small population may just make fiscal sense.

uh huh...

Funny how that "fiscal sense" always disenfranchises those who will tend to vote Democratic

 

[Loren Pechtel]

This is an utterly absurd fantasy. Any employer who tried to pull such a stunt would be violating the law.

Vote-by-mail works. It saves the government a lot of money, and it makes voting a lot easier. The main thing I don't like about it is that the results in close elections come in much more slowly, since ballots only need be postmarked on the day of the election. However, a lot of people do vote before election day. I used to be unhappy about the fact that a lot of people did not want to pay the postage or take the trouble to find a dropbox, but that objection is now fixed. The state provides postage-paid envelopes.

Of course they would be violating the law. Doesn't mean they wouldn't do it.

It would be so astonishingly easy to catch them, they would not do it.
The laws with the most likely catch and the most severe punishment, are the ones that get followed.

ALl a person would have to do is turn on their phone recorder the day after the election and wait for someone to ask them where their ballot is.

This fantasy is dumb.

Not so easy to catch them if the boss makes sure there's no record of them saying it.

 

[ZiprHead]

Witness accounts are a record of them saying it. Getting one employee to do this would hardly make a difference in an election. Getting dozens or hundreds of employees to do this and you have an airtight prosecution.

It's just not a plausible scenario.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Witness accounts are a record of them saying it. Getting one employee to do this would hardly make a difference in an election. Getting dozens or hundreds of employees to do this and you have an airtight prosecution.

It's just not a plausible scenario.

You realize that in the days before the secret ballot was required this sort of thing happened? (Retaliation for improper votes, not specifically ordering the workers to bring in their ballots.)

 

[Rhea]

Witness accounts are a record of them saying it. Getting one employee to do this would hardly make a difference in an election. Getting dozens or hundreds of employees to do this and you have an airtight prosecution.

It's just not a plausible scenario.

You realize that in the days before the secret ballot was required this sort of thing happened? (Retaliation for improper votes, not specifically ordering the workers to bring in their ballots.)

You realize that happened before personal cell phone cameras and audio devices?

At some point, they have to communicate the threat. They have to instruct the worker or voter what is being demanded. At that point, they are caught.

Your scenario is dumb and certainly not sufficient to deny actual votes to hundreds of thousands of people.
Nice try to attempt distraction by fear, but the scenario is dumb and not fearful and you failed.

 

[Copernicus]

Loren, I would like you to meet this talented, reliable worker who is looking for a job. You can trust her to be discreet and never risk doing anything to embarrass you. Her name is "Omarosa".

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Loren, I would like you to meet this talented, reliable worker who is looking for a job. You can trust her to be discreet and never risk doing anything to embarrass you. Her name is "Omarosa".

Three words:

"Two party state".