Dems aim to dismantle state voting restrictions

[highplainsdem]

Source: The Hill

House Democrats on Tuesday introduced legislation designed to empower more people at the polls in November.

Authored by Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), the proposal would essentially nullify many of the state-based ID requirements enacted in recent years — mostly by Republican legislatures — in the name of fighting election fraud.

-snip-

Under Larsen's bill, voters in states with government ID requirements could sign an affidavit attesting to their identity in lieu of showing the mandated documents.

The proposal is modeled on the system used in Larsen's home state of Washington, where all ballots are cast by mail and all voters sign an affidavit certifying they are who they say they are. Strict penalties, including thousands of dollars in fines and the threat of years in prison, are both appropriate and sufficient for preventing fraud, Larsen said.

-snip-

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/250169-dems-aim-to-dismantle-state-voting-restrictions

[Panasonic]

1. They're on their way

PA ID law was vacated, and remanded to lower courts.

The ID law is null and void.

[robinlynne]

5. It was not vacated. It was sent back to the lower court to rule. Hardly good news!

[jody]

2. Great idea and should also be used for travel by air, train, bus, etc. nt

[Mr.Bill]

3. Yeah, I'm going to bet

that every Republican in Congress will vote against that.

[elleng]

4. Won't even be considered, imo.

They're going on VACATION!

[Tigress DEM]

17. Sure, they'll be the one's paying fines.

THERE is no rampant voter fraud, at least not on the DEM side.

But the elegance of this is, OK, so someone actually cheats. Punish them. Fine them. Take away their right to vote for cheating the system.

HOWEVER, those that cheat in other ways need to be punished and fined and lose THEIR right to vote too. So people who make caging lists, people who flip black box voting machines, people who throw away evidence - the paper trail.

We need to have BOTH sides ELECTION FRAUD and voter fraud... non-issue, but by conceeding it we appear reasonable and quell their paranoia over people voting who ain't supposed to.

[Iliyah]

6. Every GOPers plus BlueDogs will vote

against it!

[Ford_Prefect]

7. About time they noticed don't you think?

The national Democratic leadership left voters hanging in the wind on this and redistricting in many states for far too long. Where the F*@# was the DOJ ??? Chasing granny to stop her dealing glaucoma meds?

I'm in North Carolina where redistricting has stolen my local and federal vote, although it is clearly unrepresentative and in violation of the civil rights act. The Democratic party seems to have pulled a duck dive on continuing any challenge to it. The legislature rethugs here handcuffed the governor and have plans to turn NC into Wisconsin II.

This is not "Dixie" many on DU whine about. We fought and almost stopped the obscene "Marriage Amendment". What should we do with a Democratic national party that won't get up and fight until the opposition falls over its own shoes? The state democratic party and the national leadership seemed to write NC off as a gimme to Mitt and the Tea Party Lunatics until after the convention. Are we to be sacrificed to show others what not to do?

[Kolesar]

10. Yeah, Well said!

This needs attention.

[1KansasDem]

8. I think this is a losing issue for us, that up to this point hasn't hurt us.

A quick google search of voter ID polls shows 60%-78% support for such laws.
Just sayin'

[Ford_Prefect]

11. At the risk of offending 1KansasDem: Can you neither read nor count?

The voters who will not be counted and those who have been intimidated by this and other actions, legal and otherwise, might beg to differ on your choice of terms and your estimation of the "effect".

The point is that the Democratic Party has ignored this issue far too long and allowed it to become the answer to your Googled polls. Rather than fight for our right to actually vote and have the votes counted they have "taken another path". There was a time when voting rights were fought for by DOJ. There once were Presidents, Attorney Generals, Senators and Congressional committees who felt the right to vote was worthy of protection. Sadly it is now taken for granted that the fight is somehow not worth the battles since perception is all that really is poll worthy.

You may recall the last time the Democratic leadership decided to write off certain states and voters explaining that they just could not justify fighting for them. You may also recall how successful that tactic was.

Now ask yourself, if you were not able to vote, or had been threatened, or had been told you were dead, how you would feel about a party who desperately calls on you for your vote, your money, and your participation in GOTV activities after refusing to defend you over and over again...Then please tell me about what constitutes a losing proposition.

[1KansasDem]

13. I was merely pointing out that polling on this issue runs against what our

Democratic legislators are trying to do. Even a majority of Democrats support voter ID laws.
Anytime a party takes a position on an issue that is unpopular with the majority of voters they risk a backlash at the voting booth.
A majority of americans and democrats apparently feel that asking for a voter to show a picture ID is not a burden.

P.S.Yes I can both count and read.

[Selatius]

18. See, this is how rights work: You can't vote on its existence.

If a state wants to pass a voter ID law, then the burden of ensuring everyone has an ID should be the state to pay. Typically, the legislatures that pass these laws don't set aside funding to identify people who have trouble getting IDs and helping them.

As a result, it is an unfunded mandate with the effect of keeping people away from the polls. There are Korean War veterans and a handful of World War II veterans as well as Viet Nam veterans who have probably lost their Social Security cards or birth certificates or both, and so they can't vote, in a nation that they fought and sacrificed for. There are elderly black citizens who lived in the days of Jim Crow, and so they never had much of a paper trail documenting their identity or even a birth certificate. Now they can't vote. There are millions of others who are in similar circumstance, and now they can't even vote.

Doing the popular thing isn't always the right thing. LBJ once opined that signing the 1964 Civil Rights Act was tantamount to committing political suicide for the party. He was right. A huge chunk of the working class vote splintered off and joined the Republican Party, and to date the Democrats have had trouble getting these voters back, but you know what? Signing the Civil Rights Act into law was the right thing to do, despite its unpopularity in those days.

[Ford_Prefect]

19. With respect to you 1KansasDem. You make a tactical point that is supported by fact.

I understand the political calculus and the evidence. I do not dispute that this is probably not going to succeed in congress nor likely change public sentiment about identifying voters.

The risk of doing the right thing is a requirement of representing all of the people. My point is simply that if the party is not willing to fight for all of the people it loses the right to expect their support. A political fight is not only about the battles won. It is most certainly about why those battles must be fought. Mr. Romney and his Ilk are getting an object lesson in that reality as we speak.

We recently had the repeal of DADT. But do you recall who was the first president to attempt to change that aspect of military protocol? Did it matter that he tried to do it? I think you must ask those who served then and since how they feel about it, and about how they saw the future from that point on. The rights of the people matter to them...every single time.

[midnight]

9. Sounds like a great way to eradicate this creeping tool of fraud...

[fascisthunter]

12. now, let's get rid of private companies owning the right to count our votes

[silvershadow]

14. and the right to keep the proprietary computer code to themselves.

[Tigress DEM]

16. agreed

[Tigress DEM]

15. kick

rethugs are the only people trying to vote more than once or using fluffy or fido's names to bulk up their districts. DEMS HAVE enough people if we'd all just get out and vote.