206 replies to this topic

[cw68]

so some homeless scum bag sleeping off a binge from the night before doesn't have any ID should be handed a ballot.

Yes, they should. "Homeless" "scum bag" "sleeping off a binge from the night before" doesn't factor at all into their right to vote being any less of a right than yours.

All y'all think you are so much entitled to a vote than everyone else (for whatever reason: you're smarter, you're less lazy, you're rich, you don't drink, etc.). While you'd probably be OK going back to only white, male landowners voting, that's not what our country has proven itself to be about.

[The Average Joe]

That is a pretty silly jump.

[cw68]

That is a pretty silly jump.

Admittedly. The white, male landowner was more to prove a point, though I stand behind the previous sentence.

[Carl G]

Should homeless people not have a right to vote?

The bottom line is the guarantee of our freedoms and liberty. Our Constitution is what sets us high and above other countries. The Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection clause states that ALL American citizens are entitled to the same rights and that no law can be made that denies someone a right or discriminates against a person or group of persons.

Requiring a photo ID denies plenty of people that right. I don't care if it's 1% of the people whom this affects. Those 1%er's right to vote is just as important as the other 99%'s.

This isn't above people being too lazy to get an ID.

This is a serious question - how many homeless people vote? Or what percentage of homeless vote?

[nomad]

No, that's not the only reason. The concern really is simple. I understand the desire to ensure, with photo ID, the identity of the voter. It's also very easy to dismiss the barriers to getting an ID when you don't have a problem overcoming those barriers. But there are real barriers to a lot of people.

Then there is the whole cost thing. In theory IDs are free, but there's a cost to getting the documents needed if you don't have them on hand ($25 for a birth certificate, $20 for a marriage license if your name changed).

The bottom line to me is that having money and a car isn't required in order to vote, nor should it be. IMO, protecting our liberties (the right to vote) is the most important thing here.

Barriers to getting an ID? You are like the the superhero defender of the absurd. I bet ya that everyone of those without an ID that shows up to vote that couldn't get past those "barriers" has a cell phone with a data plan.

[cw68]

Barriers to getting an ID? You are like the the superhero defender of the absurd. I bet ya that everyone of those without an ID that shows up to vote that couldn't get past those "barriers" has a cell phone with a data plan.

I betcha not.

[nomad]

I betcha not.

OK but they'll have a full set of 22's on the Chrysler 300 and some major bling going on. You really don't live in the real world of today.

[cw68]

OK but they'll have a full set of 22's on the Chrysler 300 and some major bling going on. You really don't live in the real world of today.

And you've never seen true poverty, nor never have been deep into a holler in West Virginia, nor seen the poverty on a reservation or the infirm deep in Mississippi. (OK, the last ones I haven't seen either.)

The faces of poverty have changed with materialism, yes, especially in the mainstream media, but that picture you just painted by no means represents all the poor.

[Chris]

Hey CW68, a little reality check for you.......! An actual list of occasions where real people had to show real ID's. I'd say voting is way more important than a lot of these so show your ID or you don't get to vote......!

Cash a check
See an R rated movie (sometimes)
Buy a gun
Test drive a car
Apply for most jobs
Pick up your own kids from your public school
Rent tools from a hardware store
Buy life insurance
Buy over the counter allergy medicine
Get married
Give blood
Apply for a passport
Play paintball (at some locations)
Enjoy a show at an adult entertainment venue
See a doctor (in some locations)
Get care for your pet at an animal hospital (in some locations)
Rent a hotel room
Pick up tickets for events at a box office
Close a real estate sale
Identify a loved one's remains
Sign up for a rewards card at a grocery store (Shaw's card, Stop and Shop card, etc.)
Redeem a lottery ticket
Get on an airplane
Take your children to the pediatrician's office (in some locations)
Buy a beer at a restaurant
Fill out and submit an I-9 tax form (actually TWO forms of ID required!)
Return merchandise at many retail stores
Get a membership at a gym (many locations)
Rent a videogame with an MA rating
Getting something notarized
Take professional exams in industries like insurance, accounting, finance, etc.
Pick up items at a store purchased online
Buy spray paint
Get a package from Fedex or UPS
Buy a car
Rent a car
Buy fertilizer
Buy fireworks
Rent an apartment
Get a fishing or hunting license
Apply for government housing
Play sports in some youth leagues
Compete in American Idol
Apply for Social Security/Medicare
Pay a cable bill
Camp at a state park campground
Get on an Amtrak train
Buy ammo for a gun
Rent climbing equipment
Rent skis
Pick up a package from the post office
Pick up vacation hold mail from the post office
Buy model glue
Using my credit card at Lowes
Buying automotive paint
Get on a Ferry Boat

[cw68]

Hey CW68, a little reality check for you.......! An actual list of occasions where real people had to show real ID's. I'd say voting is way more important than a lot of these so show your ID or you don't get to vote......!

Hey Chris, a little reality check for you.......! Only two of those are a right guaranteed to us and, if I'm correct, you fully support that right and are against attempts to squash it.

[nomad]

And you've never seen true poverty, nor never have been deep into a holler in West Virginia, nor seen the poverty on a reservation or the infirm deep in Mississippi. (OK, the last ones I haven't seen either.)

The faces of poverty have changed with materialism, yes, especially in the mainstream media, but that picture you just painted by no means represents all the poor.

Again you show your arrogance by assuming everyone here grew up in the Folsom bubble. I've seen the rough side, lived right next to it when growing up in Detroit. The face hasn't changed at all. I guess there are poor, really poor, and really, really poor.

But that doesn't mean that any of them cannot afford by some means to get a friggin ID card.

[cw68]

Again you show your arrogance by assuming everyone here grew up in the Folsom bubble. I've seen the rough side, lived right next to it when growing up in Detroit. The face hasn't changed at all. I guess there are poor, really poor, and really, really poor.

But that doesn't mean that any of them cannot afford by some means to get a friggin ID card.

I'm sorry that I assumed something about you that wasn't true.

Some cannot afford, by any means, to get a friggin ID card because of various reasons both monetary and logistically (rural poverty is much different than urban poverty) - mostly the really, really poor and then the really poor. I just get riled when people assume sweeping stereotypes that aren't sweepingly true. There is poverty and there is laziness, the two do not always go hand-in-hand. Oh, there's also stupidity and poverty that don't go hand-in-hand either.

ps - I do live in the real world. My time in the Folsom bubble is a blip of my lifetime.

[supermom]

And you've never seen true poverty, nor never have been deep into a holler in West Virginia, nor seen the poverty on a reservation or the infirm deep in Mississippi. (OK, the last ones I haven't seen either.)

The faces of poverty have changed with materialism, yes, especially in the mainstream media, but that picture you just painted by no means represents all the poor.

Seeing, and living it are two different things. Some folks literally can not comprehend the daily gravity of the situation that is inherent in poverty. Heck, most of em would beat you down if you told them they need ID to vote. They would call you a communist. Then they would walk on in there, vote and that would be the last time they have anything t do with the big government machine.

They would tell you that they have always been poor. And always will be. Heck most middle class folks cats have more store bought property than the poor folks. Yep, I know poor. and they don't use money to buy liquor. They grow their own liquor. Or they steal it. And of coarse it isn't really stealing because those same little turds will come on back and steal something from you. Like a set of brake pads off of car. Everything gets used hard in a poor neighborhood.

[cw68]

Should people who are completely out of touch with reality due to dementia, drug and/or alcohol abuse really be rousted out of their cardboard boxes, jail cells, or home made cabins in the woods and forced to vote for people they know nothing about? Do these people really want to vote or is it just the democratic party pushing them to vote? Why should convicted felons be given the privilege of voting? Is it again just so the dems can have a pool of easily influenced voters?

Isn't this how the scams start? When political group such as ACORN goes out and bribes/pays destitue people to vote for their candidates? Voting is a privilege that shouldn't be abused and manipulated by bribing poor people, dangling "carrots" in front of them and telling them who to vote for.

This whole issue reminds me of what led to concept for the movie Idiocracy.

* If ID's were free to obtain, would you guys still think they should not be required? Is your opposition to ID's because of the cost? worry about identifying people? Or is it mostly because your party wants easily influenced voters?

IMO I think it's completely absurde to not require any ID to vote and I do not understand the opposition to this requirement in order to vote for the leadership of our country, which IMO is a very important responsibility not to be taken lightly and not to be forced on people who don't want to bother getting an ID or voting in the first place.

The Democrats aren't the only ones who round up voters, you know. And again, voting is a right, not a privilege. And again, there's a whole slew of people who arent't "too bothered" to get an ID, but that's obviously something you don't want to aknowledge. That's your choice. And again, I've stated the barriers to get an ID, only some of which are addressed by a free ID. We just disagree.