Below are screen-shots from a Facebook conversation in response to this meme/graphic concerning the importance of voting and attempts to obstruct voting. The meme does not specifically target Voter ID laws but that is the emphasis of the discussion that developed.
You can leave comments here, but if you are on Facebook I suggest you leave your comments there. I will update this post with screen-shots of your comments. I will blackout identifying information on those screen-shots unless you specifically request that I don’t.
All screen-shots are linked to the original Facebook conversation and their are links to relevant information below.
see also: VOTER ID REQUIREMENTS ARE A SOLUTION IN SEARCH OF A PROBLEM:
- “There is no credible evidence that in-person impersonation voter fraud -- the only type of fraud that photo IDs could prevent – is even a minor problem. “
- “Proponents of voter ID laws have failed to demonstrate that individual, in -person voter fraud is even a minor problem anywhere in the country. “
- “Multiple studies have found that almost all cases of in-person impersonation voter “fraud” are the result of a voter making an honest mistake, and that even these mistakes are extremely infrequent. “
- “It is important, instead, to focus on both expanding the franchise and ending practices which actually threaten the integrity of the elections, such as improper purges of voters, voter harassment, and distribution of false information about when and where to vote. None of these issues, however, are addressed or can be resolved with a photo ID requirement. “
“VOTING IS A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE
Nothing is more fundamental to our democracy than the right to vote.
The right to vote is protected by more constitutional amendments - the 1st, 14th, 15th, 19th, 24th and 26th - than any other right we enjoy as Americans.
There are additional federal and state statutes which guarantee and protect voting rights, as well as declarations by the Supreme Court that the right to vote is fundamental because it is protective of all our other rights.”
"Voter ID laws have the potential to deny the right to vote to thousands of registered voters who do not have, and, in many instances, cannot obtain the limited identification states accept for voting. Many of these Americans cannot afford to pay for the required documents needed to secure a government-issued photo ID. As such, these laws impede access to the polls and are at odds with the fundamental right to vote. "
In closing, I repeatedly pointed out that Voter ID fraud, of the type that these Voter ID laws are supposed to stop are not a problem that rises to the level of influencing elections. I asked Steve to provide information that this was a real problem and he failed to do so. It is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist, and this gives rise to the question, “What is their real purpose?”
Here is information on how much of a problem Voter ID fraud of this nature really is (this comes from propublica):
“There have been only a small number of fraud cases resulting in a conviction. A New York Times analysis from 2007 identified 120 cases filed by the Justice Department over five years. These cases, many of which stemmed from mistakenly filled registration forms or misunderstanding over voter eligibility, resulted in 86 convictions.
There are “very few documented cases,” said UC-Irvine professor and election law specialist Rick Hasen. “When you do see election fraud, it invariably involves election officials taking steps to change election results or it involves absentee ballots which voter ID laws can’t prevent,” he said.
An analysis by News21, a national investigative reporting project, identified 10 voter impersonation cases out of 2,068 alleged election fraud cases since 2000 — or one out of every 15 million prospective voters.”
What is the real purpose of these laws? here is one explanation of many examples(from the Boston Globe):
“…OK, but let’s for a second pretend that Alabama’s GOP-led state legislature had its heart in the right place and was truly committed to the free and legal right of all its citizens to vote — and that it in no way was trying to limit voting rights. How then does one explain the fact that Alabama is now closing 31 driver’s license offices that are predominately located in African-American communities?
Wait, did I say predominately?
Sorry, I meant to say: almost exclusively. You see, according to John Archibald, a columnist for the Alabama Media Group and Al.com, “Every single county in which blacks make up more than 75 percent of registered voters will see their [driver’s] license office closed. Every one.”
So, to put this in more layman’s terms: The state of Alabama has, by law, made it more difficult for voters in its state to vote. According to the Alabama secretary of state, about 500,000 state residents in 2014 didn’t have a photo ID (that’s 20 percent of those registered to vote). The law disproportionately affects poor people who would find it the most difficult to get a photo ID (Alabama helpfully raised the fee more than 50 percent for getting a driver’s license) and, in particular African-Americans, who voted in fewer numbers in 2014 in places where voter ID laws went into effect. In Alabama in 2014, the state had the lowest turnout in an election since 1986. Now Alabama is closing offices where state residents can get a license with a photo ID and doing it almost exclusively in places where black people live…”
So the solution to a problem, that is estimated at less than 1 in 15million prospective voters, is to make it harder for 20% (in Alabama) of voters to vote. Followed by making it harder to obtain the needed ID by closing offices that issue the IDs, in counties that are at least 75% African-Americans. Is it really hard to see the purpose of these laws. No, and its no harder to see that this true purpose is the work and effort of the Republican’t party.
GlennDL
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