Democrats keep up legal fight against Indiana voter ID law

[Thom Little]

Indiana's new voter identification requirement could make casting ballots such a chore that some people could be discouraged from voting, Democratic Party attorneys argue in new court filings.

Requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID at polling places unfairly affects the poor, minorities, people with disabilities and the elderly who are more likely to lack driver's licenses, lawyers for the Democrats wrote in a brief filed Wednesday in federal court that asks the Judge Sarah Evans Barker to throw out the law.

.......

Democratic attorneys William Groth and Geoffrey Lohman wrote, making repeated trips to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and other agencies to obtain documents to prove their identity would cost potential voters money for gas, fees and lost pay they likely cannot afford and discourage many people from voting.

All of this, they argued, is required to combat a problem that the state has no solid evidence exists.



http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IN_VOTER_IDENTIFICATION_INOL-?SITE=VARIT&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-12-22-01-31-52

[riqster]

1. Sounds like Ohio...

Dammit.

[DFWdem]

2. God forbid people have to prove who they are to vote

"Requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID at polling places unfairly affects the poor, minorities, people with disabilities and the elderly who are more likely to lack driver's licenses, lawyers for the Democrats wrote in a brief filed Wednesday..." Blah blah blah...

Easy solution. Require the gov't to sepnd x amount of dollars to educate the public concerning what is acceptable to prove identity when getting an ID. Neither political party will lose votes because of this. They certainly don't have a problem driving these people to polling places on election day to cast a vote, so it stands to reason that they can also transport people to obtain an ID.

[ima_sinnic]

3. I don't buy it

Drivers licenses are only one form of government-issued ID.
Here in Florida (& I assume must be true everywhere else) anyone can get a "state ID card" in place of a license.
Even "the poor, minorities, people with disabilities and the elderly" must have to show ID to cash checks, get a job, apply for and cash SS checks, workers comp checks, housing assistance, and other social services, even rent videos. I went to the emergency room recently and had to show a drivers license. I know that in many places even homeless people have to show ID in order to use shelters. Are we really to believe that in this day and age there is anybody remaining who does NOT have a "government-issued" ID? If that person does exist somewhere, getting a state of Florida ID takes about 15 minutes of driving to the place (and the bus passes right by the place here in Gainesville), 15-20 minutes of bureaucratic BS, and I think $10.
Having to show an ID to vote seems like a reasonable procedure. I have to show my license OR voter registration card (which I had to show ID to get in the first place) and sign something every time I vote, what's the big deal? In fact, law says "one person one vote"--how can that be accomplished if there is no way to know WHO is voting and WHERE they are supposed to do it? So these Dems think it's okay for me to go to multiple polling places and just make up a name so I can vote multiple times?

[roseBudd]

4. If you think people who drive should have an unfair advantage over those

whom do not, most of whom do not because they are truly unimaginably low income. Hard to believe that they also do not have checking accounts. Also probably hard to believe what their slum lord apartments look like.

You cannot just make up a name and vote anywhere. Voter registraion forms have birthdate, social and or drivers license number and a signature field. If I know my social and birthdate I am who I say I am when I deal with my bank over the phone.

So let's see. Voting is free and easy for people who drive. Not free and definitely not easy for people who do not drive. But hey if they weren't so fat, lazy and black, they wouldn't be so poor, now would they?

sarcasm off

[ima_sinnic]

5. oh please -- but they need ID to get social services, n'est pas?

what do you think city, county, state and federal social service agencies want to see?
"drivers license" is hardly the only form of "government-issued" ID in existence. as I say above, every state has state ID for people who don't or can't have a drivers license.
so now you're going to tell me there's people SO poor they can't somehow get an ID even to get social services? They're just "out there" somewhere, eligible for services except for an ID? riiight. I used to be a social worker and have spent 99% of my adult life living in low-income neighborhoods (b/c I'm just plain cheap as well as not that well-off) and I well know the scene. In fact, I was homeless briefly. I had to show ID to stay at a shelter.