Why not just put photos on voter registration cards?

[BuckyThreadkiller]

They can put them on student IDs, Dirver's licenses, govt ID cards, your warehouse club membership card and credit cards...

Why not voter registration cards and require those to be shown at polling places?


Obama administration blocks Texas voter ID law - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Monday blocked a new law in Texas requiring voters to show photo identification before they can cast a ballot, citing a concern that it could harm Hispanic voters who lacked such documents.
The law, which was approved in May 2011, required voters to show government-issued photo identification, such as a driver's license, military identification card, birth certificate with a photo, current U.S. passport, or concealed handgun permit.
The Justice Department said that data from Texas showed that almost 11 percent of Hispanic voters, or more than 300,000, did not have a driver's license or state-issued identification card, and that plans to mitigate those concerns were incomplete.
"Hispanic registered voters are more than twice as likely as non-Hispanic registered voters to lack such identification," Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, head of the department's civil rights division, said in a letter outlining the objection to the Texas director of elections.
Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry criticized the decision, saying he was obligated to ensure the integrity of elections.
"The DOJ has no valid reason for rejecting this important law, which requires nothing more extensive than the type of photo identification necessary to receive a library card or board an airplane," he said in a statement.
It was the second state voter identification law blocked by the Obama administration, which earlier prevented a strict new law in South Carolina from taking effect. South Carolina then sued in federal court seeking approval of its law.
Under the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act, certain states like Texas must seek approval from the Justice Department or the federal courts for changes made to state voting laws and boundaries for voting districts.
The Obama administration has already challenged the state's attempt to re-draw congressional districts and that fight is before the courts. Texas in January also sued to get approval for its voter identification law.
Several Republican-governed states, including Texas, Kansas and Wisconsin, have adopted stricter new voter identification laws, arguing they were needed to prevent ballot box fraud. A judge in Wisconsin on Monday issued an injunction against that state's law.
Some civil rights groups have said the new laws threatened to suppress minority voters. Democrats have also said they were aimed at squeezing out university students from the polling booths and seniors who tended to vote for Democrats.
"Photo identification requirements for voters drastically affect the electoral participation of the poor, the elderly, and the transient, which means those who need their government's ear most will be the last to be heard," said Representative Trey Martinez Fischer, a Texas state Democratic lawmaker.
The Justice Department said that potential voters in Texas would require two other identification documents to get a certificate allowing them to vote, which could lead to them paying high fees for copies of legal documents such as birth certificates.
Additionally, nearly one-third of the counties in the state do not have offices where potential voters can obtain a driver's license or state identification card and some residents live more than 100 miles away, the Justice Department said.
Efforts to educate voters about the new identification requirements were also incomplete and the state did not submit evidence of voter impersonation not already addressed under existing state laws, the administration said.
"The state has failed to demonstrate why it could not meet its stated goals of ensuring electoral integrity and deterring ineligible voters from voting in a manner that would have voided this retrogressive effect," Perez said.
Republicans said that the Obama administration's decision to oppose Texas' voter identification law smacked of politics ahead of the 2012 congressional and presidential elections.
"Today's decision reeks of politics and appears to be an effort by the Department of Justice to carry water for the President's reelection campaign," said U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican.
The Texas lawsuit for approval of the voter identification law is: State of Texas v. Holder in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 12-cv-128.

[BuckyThreadkiller]

Sorry Mods - meant to put this in PRC.

[04 commemorative]

never had to show mine when I voted

[MEC5LADY]

Even if they put photos on the cards do you really think those people would actually compare the card to the person handing it to them?
I actually used my neighbors credit card to see if the checkout person noticed. I guess to him I look like a 5'3" black haired asian woman.

[Bill]

Excellent idea. I think that would still bring resistance from the, um, ID challenged among us.

You'd still be requiring folks to drag out a birth certificate and a Social Security card to prove they are who they say they are, assuming they don't already have a DL or a state issued ID card, or a military ID, a bar card, or a passport, or a TWIC card, or one of the other myriad of identification cards commonly carried by folks.

Bottom line, though, is we can't charge people to vote, but nothing says we can't inconvenience those who have somehow made it through life without any of the forms of ID listed. Those folks will just have to man up and bring proof that they are who they say they are to the registrar.

[BuckyThreadkiller]

Originally Posted by MEC5LADY

Even if they put photos on the cards do you really think those people would actually compare the card to the person handing it to them?
I actually used my neighbors credit card to see if the checkout person noticed. I guess to him I look like a 5'3" black haired asian woman.

Depends - is the black haired asian woman holding a coffee cup, breakfast burrito or small kitchen appliance in front of her face in the photo?

[MEC5LADY]

Originally Posted by BuckyThreadkiller

Depends - is the black haired asian woman holding a coffee cup, breakfast burrito or small kitchen appliance in front of her face in the photo?

That would be a big no.

[CertInsaneC5]

Plain and simple. Because it would cut into his voter base.

[Cybercowboy]

I cannot believe that in this day and age we insist people produce a picture ID in order to vote. What is wrong with our country? It's getting harder and harder to commit voter fraud, what with the internet to check on dead people's names and whatnot. This is crazy. We are losing our country.

[Butterfly71]

We don't have voter registration cards but we do have to show ID.

As for this bs - vote early, vote often

[Mike Mercury]

Why not just put photos on voter registration cards?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

because it would be difficult - for deceased people - to vote for democrats.

[HeatherO]

Originally Posted by Butterfly71

We don't have voter registration cards but we do have to show ID.

As for this bs - vote early, vote often

I have a voter registration card, I've never shown it...don't even know if I know where the hell it is....I tell them my name and they look in their book, they hand me a slip of paper and I go and vote...

[04 commemorative]

I sign the back of my credit cards....ask for photo ID.

[Joecooool]

Voter fraud in this country is a fabricated problem by the republicans to justify this kind of nonsense which is specifically engineered to keep poor people from voting for democrats.

And that boys and girls is 1,000% fact.

[JRD77VET]

Originally Posted by Joecooool

Voter fraud in this country is a fabricated problem by the republicans to justify this kind of nonsense which is specifically engineered to keep poor people from voting for democrats.

And that boys and girls is 1,000% fact.

So voter fraud never really happens?

[Torqaholic]

Originally Posted by 04 commemorative

never had to show mine when I voted

Me either but the drivers license isn't optional and they verify that against property tax records. Should I care? I don't think I do

[mrvette]

Originally Posted by Joecooool

Voter fraud in this country is a fabricated problem by the republicans to justify this kind of nonsense which is specifically engineered to keep poor people from voting for democrats.

And that boys and girls is 1,000% fact.

BULLSHIT!!!

[ConstantChange]

Originally Posted by Joecooool

Voter fraud in this country is a fabricated problem by the republicans to justify this kind of nonsense which is specifically engineered to keep poor people from voting for democrats.

And that boys and girls is 1,000% fact.

I'll assume you don't really mean that and you're just using it as bait. Nice try...

[ConstantChange]

Originally Posted by mrvette

BULLSHIT!!!

Don't fall for the trap! He's just trying to get people fired up. He knows it's BS.

[Bill]

Originally Posted by Joecooool

Voter fraud in this country is a fabricated problem by the republicans to justify this kind of nonsense which is specifically engineered to keep poor people from voting for democrats.

And that boys and girls is 1,000% fact.

Dead People Voting Throughout Florida

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. —

Thousands of dead Floridians are registered to vote and some in Central Florida had ballots cast in their names long after their deaths.
"That is scary," said Jim Branch.

Branch's mother Marjorie died in 2004 but someone voted for her in 2006. Branch had tried to get his mother removed from the voter rolls.

"It was much easier for me calling Social Security and taking her off not getting any more checks here, than it was that (voter registration)," he sid.

County records show James Santiago voted in the 2006 general election. He too, was dead. His wife, Joann, sees this as an open invitation for voter fraud.

"I think it leaves it open to sign his name, during an election, especially an important one like this year," said Joann.

Channel Nine discovered 1,636 registered voters in Central Florida are dead.

"This is what makes Supervisors of Elections lose sleep at night," said Volusia County Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall.

McFall said it used to be easy to clear out voter rolls.

"We had two people who did nothing but cut obituary notices out of the papers," she said. "That's how we found out someone died."

But 2002's Help America Vote act, which made it easier to register to vote, also made it more difficult to remove voters from the rolls. But Orange County Election Supervisor Bill Cowles doesn't worry.

"I think the mechanisms are in place. There's enough checks and balances in place," he said.

However, 90 days before the election, voter rolls can't be changed and if the state doesn't tell elections offices a voter has died, that voter can be on the rolls for years.

"The minute I said he was deceased, they should've made note, they should've done whatever they had to do, the people sitting behind that table, they should have done something," said Joann Santiago

Elections supervisors say they are pushing the state to allow them to accept death certificates from families as reasonable evidence to remove dead voters from the rolls.

TOMORROW AT 5 ON EYEWITNESS NEWS: See how big the problem is nationwide.

Dead People Voting Throughout Florida | www.wftv.com