TN: Don't Play Politics With Voting Rights (Via Voter ID requirements)

[Land Shark]

A good editorial showing that politics are being played to support voter IDs in an area with little or no evidence that IDs or lack thereof have created any significant documented problems. From the Nashville Tennessean.

<http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061002/OPINION01/610020325/1008>

[galloglas]

1. Reader input into the Tennessean article

so far, has been running as the rest of GOP spin in favor of HR4844.

"We must enact this bil to keep non-citizens from voting !!!!"

In that little "Tennessee Tiff" the first posters refer to "mainstream Democrats" and "Machine Democrats".

Replies refer to "mainstream Republicans" and "Machine Republicans"

Both sides fail to answer the question without the labels, and fail to address two points the Tennessean makes itself.

Republican leaders have said anyone who wants to legitimately exercise their voting rights can do so by obtaining a photo ID or proof of citizenship, as would be required to use a credit card or board a passenger flight. Such requirements, they say, will root out impostors at the polls.


The simple answer is that if "E.T." were to line up for a vote, the pollworkers would likely recognize amiss. They just might offer a challenge.

When E.T. can only come up with a pack of Reese's Pieces in his oddly fingered hands, one fingertip aglow, the police should be called and E.T can be arrested for a felony attempt at voting.

No need for 4844, no laws already not on the books, no current voters disenfranchised (or inconvenienced). IOW, "no problem".


Such numbers are irrelevant, the law's backers say, because they say they can't verify fraud without the new requirements.

But that argument presumes guilt, and could play to Democrats' contention that groups of voters are purposely being shut out.

The House bill attempts to address the disenfranchisement question by stipulating that states issue ID cards free to those who cannot afford them, but that raises another red flag.

States already strapped to pay for other unfunded federal mandates may have trouble paying for those IDs.


You bet your bippy, another unfunded mandate. When the state fails to follow that mandate, who gets hurt?

Right.

It's not the 13 million "illegal aliens" that the Delusional Wing of the GOP thinks will pay thousand of dollars to "coyotes" to reach the states illegally, then risk imprisonment to vote illegally in an election.

It is the 13 million Americans who, for about a million different reasons, cannot comply with the GOP disenfranchisement laws.

The GOP spin is to have flacks pick apart these million different reasons and offer "helpful solutions" as to how to comply. Solutions that are always flawed, and ones that they don't have follow through on to protect their vote.

Let's face it. There is no "Voter Fraud", though there is ample (but usually ignored) proof of election fraud. True "voter fraud" is as common as "Man bites Dog" stories.

Why would these illegal aliens try vote anyway? They don't even have a dog in these election fights.

[indepat]

2. This is all about voter suppression: fewer votes will need to be flipped

by the Diebold-type machine in order for the "official" results to not be any further off from the exit polls than necessary.

[roseBudd]

3. I can tell you the cheapest way to verify citizenship and it will only mis

expats.

Ask the voter to speak. My great grandmother immigrated here when she was 18 and to the day she died never sounded like anything but what she was, in this case a legal immigrant but still an alien who never learned to read and write English.

I have to prove I was born here when it is apparent as my speaking voice?

This is a suppression ploy.

[galloglas]

4. My own post to the Tennessean brought this response

After making the first post in response to Land Shark's, a few hours passed. I kept reflecting on the posts that were being made by local readers, mulling them over. So, I decided to post some of my first post on this thread directly to the Tennessean.

I offer a couple of cut'n'pastes of some responses, for flavor.

Anyone wishing to enlighten the readers can register (gratis) and post.

http://forums.tennessean.com/viewtopic.php?t=4916&start=0

There is one and only one reason a person would not be for voter ID..they favor voter fraud. We already have people voting who don't know who the vice-president, senators and congressmen who represent them are, why go even farther and have non-citizens voting in elections.

this memorable one leaves me wondering how to communicate to the poster, other than "Source on that, please?"

Sorry Gallo, however the assertions in your post are correct (sic. probably meant incorrect). There is massive voter fraud that is concentrated in the democrat party. Dead people voting in Memphis, Chicago, rolling out vote in the Cumberland Plateau. Illegal aliens do try to vote.

I & the majority of people in the US are incredulous that anyone with intelligence & ethics would see anything wrong with having to have a Photo ID to prove one's identity before voting. Using "ET" as an example does not speak well for either your intelligence or ability to make analogies. A better analogy would be if a latino man wearing a white cowboy hat got in line to vote & gave the name Sam Jones.

If there is no photo id requriement, there is no real chance of being arrested for illegally voting. The illegal aliens have no dog in this fight? Not an educated statement, if one looks @ the political landscape & the incredibly huge issue that border security/illegal aliens are in this election. Please do not "talk down" to us - you'll be talking to our shoes. We are quite "up" on things around here.

There is a vote fraud problem in many areas, & the desire by some to make fraud easier to perpetrate. What states do not right now offer free state photo IDs to the indigent? Poo-pooing the vote-fraud issue is no winning issue politically or ethically.


If anyone can convey to them that it is our Constitutional right to vote, as citizens, and not something subject to their own current xenophobic whims, I would be grateful... if not actually amazed.

Gives one an idea of what HR 4844 is really about (and makes me wonder how one spells Ku Klux Klan in Spanish).:shrug: