Right to Vote vs. Voter ID
I have had several long discussions on the subject of Voter ID lately. It seems that the left sees any attempt to ensure 'clean' voting as an attempt by Republicans to disenfranchise 'brown' people from their God-given right to vote. Those on the right see it as a way to make sure that Democrats do not gather up a busload of illegal aliens and street bums on election day and drive them from precinct to precinct to vote for Obama. "Vote early, and vote often..." goes the mantra.
Even our good friend Garry Trudeau is jumping into the fray with this week's Doonesbury series.
It is so easy to poke fun at right-wingers, isn't it? I mean, why fix a problem that isn't a problem?
Here is the snag with that argument. If there isn't a problem, then why is something as simple as pulling out an ID to vote such an issue? Do white liberals really care that much about some random poor guy in Erie, PA that makes his way to the Ebeneezer Baptist Church on Tuesday, only to find that since he couldn't afford a free Voter ID card, his vote won't count? Really?
I guarantee you, dear reader, that if the Democrats had the slightest hint that Republicans were using dead people to vote, getting organizations like ACORN to do mass, fraudulent voter registrations, busing in illegals to cast ballots or having people drive from precinct to precinct to get in as many votes as possible, they would be the first to "pass a law" to stop their activities. After all, passing a law fixes everything doesn't it?
Do I think that there is rampant voter fraud? In the big picture? No. Do I think there is election fraud? Hell, yeah! It is a lot harder to stop election fraud, because it is perpetrated from the inside by people who know how to work the system (missed ballot boxes here, 'found' ballot boxes there).
For me, it is a matter of principle. In the US, you already have to be registered to vote before you can vote. That is a given. As far as I know, every state and locality issues a Voter Registration Card which can be used as identification at the polls. If you are registered, you can only positively vote once. The poll workers check your name off of a list when they issue you the ballot. (I guess if you were really determined to cheat, you could get a dead person's Voter Registration Card, find out which precinct they are registered in, and vote as them, but I digress.)
When I, as a 50-something year old male, gets carded to make sure that I am over 21, isn't that discriminatory? Do they want me to believe that not a single, solitary, non-photo ID'd, disenfranchised, would-be voter has ever tried to buy a beer and was turned away because they didn't have proper identification? C'mon... Even though I find it impossible to imagine that any individual in the United States could be rich (drivers license for TSA checkpoint), middle class (Social Security registration, drivers license, credit cards) or poor (registration for welfare, unemployment benefits, disability benefits) without some sort of valid ID, we are NOT trying to stop people from voting.
I could write a whole posting on why I think that there should be modicum of effort involved in preparing to vote, and also that there is no "right to vote" in the Constitution, that is really not the issue for today.
What is at issue is that it is hard to even fart in this nation without a verified ID of some sort. So, why is it that the left wants to allow the most sacred (to use a tired phrase) of all privileges in this country to be thrown about to anyone, dead or alive, legal or illegal (remember there are up to 22 million undocumented aliens in the US), unless they have a strong suspicion that these people will overwhelmingly vote for them?
Back when elections were decided by margins of 60 to 70 percent, this was not even an issue, but now with elections being decided by as little as a few hundred votes, it is paramount that only the proper citizens vote. Is that too much to ask?
Even our good friend Garry Trudeau is jumping into the fray with this week's Doonesbury series.
It is so easy to poke fun at right-wingers, isn't it? I mean, why fix a problem that isn't a problem?
Here is the snag with that argument. If there isn't a problem, then why is something as simple as pulling out an ID to vote such an issue? Do white liberals really care that much about some random poor guy in Erie, PA that makes his way to the Ebeneezer Baptist Church on Tuesday, only to find that since he couldn't afford a free Voter ID card, his vote won't count? Really?
I guarantee you, dear reader, that if the Democrats had the slightest hint that Republicans were using dead people to vote, getting organizations like ACORN to do mass, fraudulent voter registrations, busing in illegals to cast ballots or having people drive from precinct to precinct to get in as many votes as possible, they would be the first to "pass a law" to stop their activities. After all, passing a law fixes everything doesn't it?
Do I think that there is rampant voter fraud? In the big picture? No. Do I think there is election fraud? Hell, yeah! It is a lot harder to stop election fraud, because it is perpetrated from the inside by people who know how to work the system (missed ballot boxes here, 'found' ballot boxes there).
For me, it is a matter of principle. In the US, you already have to be registered to vote before you can vote. That is a given. As far as I know, every state and locality issues a Voter Registration Card which can be used as identification at the polls. If you are registered, you can only positively vote once. The poll workers check your name off of a list when they issue you the ballot. (I guess if you were really determined to cheat, you could get a dead person's Voter Registration Card, find out which precinct they are registered in, and vote as them, but I digress.)
When I, as a 50-something year old male, gets carded to make sure that I am over 21, isn't that discriminatory? Do they want me to believe that not a single, solitary, non-photo ID'd, disenfranchised, would-be voter has ever tried to buy a beer and was turned away because they didn't have proper identification? C'mon... Even though I find it impossible to imagine that any individual in the United States could be rich (drivers license for TSA checkpoint), middle class (Social Security registration, drivers license, credit cards) or poor (registration for welfare, unemployment benefits, disability benefits) without some sort of valid ID, we are NOT trying to stop people from voting.
I could write a whole posting on why I think that there should be modicum of effort involved in preparing to vote, and also that there is no "right to vote" in the Constitution, that is really not the issue for today.
What is at issue is that it is hard to even fart in this nation without a verified ID of some sort. So, why is it that the left wants to allow the most sacred (to use a tired phrase) of all privileges in this country to be thrown about to anyone, dead or alive, legal or illegal (remember there are up to 22 million undocumented aliens in the US), unless they have a strong suspicion that these people will overwhelmingly vote for them?
Back when elections were decided by margins of 60 to 70 percent, this was not even an issue, but now with elections being decided by as little as a few hundred votes, it is paramount that only the proper citizens vote. Is that too much to ask?
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