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n2doc

(47,953 posts)
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 03:53 PM Apr 2014

Voter ID Is the Real Fraud

For the first time since the Supreme Court junked a core provision of the Voting Rights Act in June, a federal court has used the strongest surviving part of the act to strike down a state’s voter-identification law, and, in the process, has set out a detailed road map for upcoming challenges to similar laws around the country.

Supporters of these laws insist they are necessary to prevent fraud at the polls, though such fraud is basically nonexistent. The real point is to deter from the polls significant numbers of Democratic voters, particularly minorities and the poor.

That was the heart of the reasoning by Judge Lynn Adelman of Federal District Court in Milwaukee, who issued an extraordinarily thorough 90-page ruling on Tuesday invalidating Wisconsin’s voter-ID law as a harmful solution in search of an imaginary problem. The law was passed by a Republican-controlled statehouse in 2011 and required that a prospective voter present a government-issued photo ID, like a driver’s license or passport.

“Virtually no voter impersonation occurs in Wisconsin, and it is exceedingly unlikely that voter impersonation will become a problem in Wisconsin in the foreseeable future,” the judge wrote.

“A person would have to be insane to commit voter-impersonation fraud,” he added, pointing to high costs of being prosecuted for that crime compared with the low benefits of casting one additional vote.

more

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/30/opinion/voter-id-is-the-real-fraud.html?emc=edit_ty_20140430&nl=opinion&nlid=41565923&_r=0

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yeoman6987

(14,449 posts)
1. Why not throw a picture on the Voter ID Card
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 04:38 PM
Apr 2014

It seems like such an easy solution and save the Democrats from spending money fighting these lawsuits and perhaps use the money on getting candidates elected. The ID could be used for banking and everything else too.

PeaceNikki

(27,985 posts)
3. We do not have "Voter ID Cards" in WI
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 04:52 PM
Apr 2014

In addition, one would assume you would want/need to show a state-issued picture ID to get an ID like you're talking about. Especially if it could be used for other things, like banking. So... not a simple solution. Same exact problem. Same poll tax.

RebelOne

(30,947 posts)
5. We do here in Georgia, but I have never had to show it.
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 05:10 PM
Apr 2014

All they want is my driver's license and then verify my identity on their computers.

Johonny

(20,684 posts)
2. Republicans cheered the inked fingers in Afghanistan then approve draconian measures here in the USA
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 04:49 PM
Apr 2014

hmm... i

Gothmog

(144,005 posts)
4. The only purpose served by voter id laws is to steal the vote from poor people
Wed Apr 30, 2014, 05:04 PM
Apr 2014

These laws serve no other purpose.

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