Republicans are for voter ID's to make sure no fraudulent voting is taking place. Democrats are against voter ID laws because they want anyone to be able to vote without an ID. To me, this is a form of cheating.
We have had voter ID in Georgia since the early oughts. While I don't think it's necessary, I don't think it's kept anyone from voting in Georgia. Almost everyone here has a driver's license or a state ID. The reason I know this is because some of my former patients had to get a state ID before any doctor would see them. Afaik, physicians always ask for ID the first time you have an appointment. This is done to prevent insurance fraud. So, at least in Georgia, voter ID hasn't been a problem for voters, especially since it's been on the books for so many years.
But, seriously, voter fraud is something that almost never happens. When it does, it's usually due to a misunderstanding. For example, someone thinks they are registered but they aren't. I remember one case where a legal immigrant mistakenly believed she could vote. She ended up being arrested. I don't remember which state that was in but I did read about it. The Republicans use the voter fraud argument as a way to justify making it more difficult to vote. It's basically a scare tactic.
What is a problem in Georgia is voter suppression. Kemp did whatever he could to take people off the rolls, especially those who lived in majority black districts. He also supported closing down polling places that were in predominately poor minority districts, making it more difficult to get to the polls for those who don't have reliable transportation. For example, I live in a mostly white neighborhood, and my polling place is literally on the corner of my street, although I usually vote early, which is done in one location. In some poor counties, the polling places were 20 or more miles away from some of the people.
As far as the machines go, we are getting new ones that do have a paper receipt, but they haven't been installed in all counties yet. They are supposed to be in the entire state prior to the November election. The linked article should have mentioned that.
We now have a way to check and make sure we are currently registered to vote in Georgia. There's an Internet address where we can check our current ID. I have been encouraging some of my friends to check to see if there registrations are current.
It's hard to prove, but considering that our current POS governor refused to give up his position as SOS during the last election, considering that he was in the charge of the last election while he was running for governor, considering that he did a lot to remove people from the rolls, it's pretty hard not to believe that he was guilty of voter suppression for his own benefit.
Abrams was a much better candidate. When she held the minority leadership roll in the Georgia congress she was greatly respected by both parties. She was pragmatic and able to work across the aisle. And, imo, based on the time I spent reading her entire platform and attending one of her rallies, she is a brilliant, natural leader. She was very popular and had wide spread appeal across the state, even in many rural areas. She lost the election by less than 2 percent. It's hard to feel as if our elections are fair in Georgia. The state is much less conservative than some people seem to think, yet we have a governor who mirrors Trump.
