General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 69 year old black woman in Virginia brought 4 forms of ID to polls & still couldn't vote [View all]IWII
(3 posts)I work in voter reg in VA, so I read this, and the comments with some interest. The election officials handled this well, imo. She did have a valid out of state license, after all, which we are all trained to see as a red flag, as maybe she isn't a registered voter. She was issued a provisional, got a free ID at the VR office, and had her ballot counted. Sorry she was inconvenienced, but her vote counted. Now she is all ready for November, or the June primary.
I don't have much an opinion about the Voter Id law, it's a rule we have to follow. However... VA is the one state that has had the law upheld because 1) Any voter can get a free, instant Voter ID at any VR office, regardless if they already have a form of picture ID. 2) Voters who can't get to the office can vote by mail-in absentee that does not require a photo ID 3) we phased the program in over two years with plenty of publicity.
Why does everyone think this is only to target people who would vote for Democrats? I've heard too many times that it is a suppression tactic, but if it does suppress any voter, and I have not seen any evidence it has, why do we assume they are old, poor, black, Democratic leaning, etc.? In our rural, poor locality, I have made some ID's for folks, and they come from every walk of life. Funny, the first I made were for well-to -do white ladies who vote R. A few younger people ,too. Yes, we do have poor people, black people and older people, but how can we tell who they are voting for?
I have a lot more to share about this, but let me give you a few anecdotes:
Older black man came into vote absentee and handed me a northern state's driver's license. No good. I asked if he had any other ID, knowing he was just in a few weeks ago and we made him one. He said no, so I reminded him, and he said he would go home and get it. Came back without it. I made him (another) temporary ID and he voted---R.
Was at a senior center doing outreach, and was trying to get interest in making ID's because my research pointed to this group as being the most likely not to have any, and when I asked if they needed photo ID's they gave me the stupid look, albeit very politely. One lady very patiently told me you have to have one nowadays to go to the Dr. or get medicine.
I have been lurking here for a while, but decided to enter the fray for this election season to help shed some light on discussions like this about voting. Obviously, I would rather not give too many details, only that I work in a VR office in a rural, poor area, but that's like a lot of VA. I will chime in on voting equiptment as well, because there seems to be a lot of misunderstandings, there ,too, like about receipts from the voting machine. So hang on and ask me just about anything!
Last anecdote: One of my career highs was making a photo ID for an elderly lady (100+) curbside and then sending her back to vote!