Show Your Papers to Vote?

[MineralMan]

Well, that goes against the grain here in the USA. We trust our citizens.

But, maybe we don't any more. I oppose any such law that requires proof of citizenship, etc. to cast a vote. However, if they manage to push it through, here's my thought.

I have those papers. You have those papers. Gather them together and vote. If you don't have those papers, get them. Be prepared. You don't have to make a lot of noise about it. Just get your papers together and prepare to vote.

Don't tell the MAGAs, though. They think they're immune to everything. A lot of them don't have such papers. A lot of them are stupid. They don't have passports, because they don't go anywhere. They don't have birth certificates because they have never needed them. They don't have their papers. So, maybe they get to the polling place and get turned away.

Meanwhile, you and I and our fellow Democrats are smart. We have our papers. We'd rather not have to show them, but we can. We go to the polling place and vote, because we know. They don't because they're chronically stupid and deliberately ignorant.

Just do it. Have your papers. If you need them, you'll have them. Lots of stupid people won't. Have your papers at hand.

[Polly Hennessey]

1. Mine are 🖐️ handy. I'm ready!

Love the idea that the Red Hats might be caught with their pants down.

[MineralMan]

2. I don't know about the pants down thing.

I don't want to see that. No, ma'am!

[ChicagoTeamster]

3. But in the south they'll make it hard for African Americans to get their voter ids

These laws are intended to make it harder for young people and minorities to vote. That's why they want an id. Even if you have all of your documents you will still need a voter id. Just like they purge voter roles, they'll take longer to give them an id or keep asking for documents that have already been provided. They'll take their originals and not let them get replacements.

[edhopper]

4. Poll taxes

Literacy test...Jim Crow is back.

[ChicagoTeamster]

7. Aren't those a violation of the voting rights act? Oh, yeah. The Supremes.

They've already ended the government prohibitions against segregation in accomodations for government contractors instituted during the Eisenhower administration.

[off-the-clock]

5. Just my own birth certificate and passport or my parents also?

[DFW]

6. Here in Germany, every eligible voter is sent a card in the mail.

You need it to vote, but I have never heard of someone wanting one who didn't get one.

Still, they do have their glitches. About 35 years ago, my wife went to vote, and the poll workers told her she couldn't vote here (Düsseldorf) because she lived in München (Bavaria, the other end of Germany). She said she had never lived in München in her life. The poll workers said that their computer showed her as living in München, so she lived in München and couldn't vote here. A social worker by profession, she then told them to look up our two children, then 5 and 7 years old, and see where they lived. Sure enough, they lived right here, where they had since birth. My wife then said either they let her vote, or she would call the police and say that the poll workers had formally and falsely accused her of child abandonment.

They let her vote.

In the fifties and early sixties in the South, the white election workers had all sorts of schemes to prevent black people from voting. All sorts of jokes about it made the rounds. One involved a literacy test, something that was indeed really used. According to the stories, one locale had two newspapers for the literacy test. The white people had to read a big headline saying "Rain Expected Tomorrow." The black people were shown a newspaper entirely in Chinese. A black guy stood in line, and came up for the literacy test. He was shown the Chinese newspaper, and asked if he could understand what it said. He said, "sure, I know what that says." Incredulous, the white poll workers asked again, "you know what THAT says? What does it say?" The black guy calmly said, "it says that here is one black dude that won't be allowed to vote this year."

[Katinfl]

8. I had to show all those papers to the DMV in NC.

Needed all kinds of proof for driver’s license. Then we registered to vote right there. I do not intend to bring papers to the polls. If you are registered, have proper ID (if needed) and have not changed your name/address you should be good to go. But somehow I have an idea that they will make it harder and harder to cast a ballot.