If MSNBC isn’t covering the story of Donald Sterling and The Clippers for the next month, he isn’t a Republican

It’s more than just voter ID. I could get behind voter ID laws if the state would make the IDs, free, and easily accessible (by, say, putting a station in every public library). The laws that truly echo Jim Crow are the ones that target voting hours so that they happen during the work day only, not on Sunday (to shut down Souls to the Polls), and that reduce the number of polling stations in strategic areas.

One thing we should all agree on is that voting should be accessible with no unreasonable barriers for anyone. Rand Paul seems to get that. I’m with him on that issue.

Early voting happens for weeks prior to election day in most states. Souls to the Polls is the Sunday before election day, and traditionally African American churches have led their parishioners to polling stations as a group since long before you were born.

“A standard gov’t ID is not an unreasonable standard to prove your right to vote.”

I agree. I’m for voter ID laws, so long as they are easily available and free. I live in Texas. To get an ID here, you have to spend an entire day (a work day, at that) in line to get one. THAT is unacceptable. We could easily fix it so that you just go to your local public library and get one in 20 minutes. As soon as we do that, I’ll be perfectly happy with it. However, my conservative libertarian friends are worried that it will lead to a national ID card, which they don’t want at all.

“It’s required for SO MANY other benign functions in life that it’s ridiculous for anyone NOT to have one.”

But those “benign functions” aren’t a constitutional right. That’s why it’s so important that we get it right.

“And voting on Tuesdays makes it harder for working Americans to get to the polls.”

Agreed! Let’s make election day a national holiday.

“there are also absentee ballots.”

Yes, but, again, Republicans are trying to restrict the use of absentee ballots in Ohio, even as we speak: http://j.mp/1iqQxr1

“I would more strongly support a low fee that just covers the cost of making the ID card, rather than making it a revenue center, which is the tendency of gov’t functions.”

The Supreme Court has been clear on this. You can’t make voting cost anything. If you want to pay for voter ID cards with taxes, that’s fine by me, but you can’t charge people for something that is a prerequisite to voting. You can’t make it an undue hassle, either. It’s just not constitutional.

I do agree that ID fees (the driving kind, not the voting kind) should not be a profit center. Those sorts of fees are regressive. They hurt the poor far more than the rich. Frankly, I’d do away with those fees, entirely.

“On the absentee ballot issue, there is also fraud. Rather than getting rid of it, I would rather they move the deadline up to give registrars ample time to certify absentee ballots as legitimate. Simple enough?”

But they have ample time as it is. After all, it only matters when the election is close enough, and when elections get that close, then absentee ballots get full scrutiny. It’s just that they don’t get as much scrutiny when they wouldn’t have made a difference. That’s just fiscally responsible. Also, there’s nothing stopping the certification process from continuing beyond election day.

“I’m not suggesting a voter ID card, I’m suggesting a personal ID card

that are already available in lieu of a driver’s license, passport, SS card, etc.”

Yes, I understand, but there needs to be at least one free and easily obtained option in that list. I don’t think that’s unreasonable.

“The Supreme Court prohibits poll taxes and any costs directly related to voting, but because of the broad and general nature of an ID card, this would surely not be a consideration under those decisions.”

No, the court has been clear that voting can’t be taxed, even indirectly.

As for fraud, of course we should ferret it out and prosecute wherever possible. Strategic Allied Consulting comes to mind: http://j.mp/1mNtuMh

That’s why we have a two week waiting period and background checks, limitations on purchases, etc. on our Second Amendment Right. But any controls or demands on the right to vote, and it’s automatically racist against poor and black people.

Not completely true about Texas and availability of locations to get ID’s.

Here is a link to what is happening in our great state.

http://votetexas.gov/election-identification-certificate-mobile-stations

Agreed! All the more reason to put them in even more places, like local grocery stores, where you can already get things like car regestration stickers.

And I never said I wanted a federal ID. I said that voter ID requirements may lead to federal IDs. We already have the SS card. All they need do is add a photo to it, and it’s done. If IDs are tied to voting in enough states, we’ll be just a step or two away from national ID cards.

Why do we have early voting for months before an election, long before the issues are done being debated, and someone may want to change their vote???

My point is that early voting fundamentally changes the process — people are now voting en masse before all of the facts are in.

No, what is important that everyone makes an INFORMED vote. Otherwise, it’s as if we are electing class president in the 10th grade. We need to stop treating voters like children and set reasonable expectations. (1) Vote in the last few days of the election after all available facts are in; (2) be responsible and get a photo ID so that the sanctity of your very own vote can be preserved and those not allowed to vote are excluded; (3) If we can’t do that, let everyone vote like they do on American Idol and lower the voting age to as young as you can operate a cell phone or iPad.

Gotcha!

You said: “Now, there ARE ways to implement voter ID in ways that ensure everyone can easily vote.”

What I am saying is: “Now, there ARE ways to implement voter ID in ways that ensure everyone who is legally entitled can easily vote.”

See the difference?

In Georgia, early voting starts 45 days before the election! For a Presidential election, that’s mid-September. Before most of all of the debates, and so much can happen in those final weeks — and one’s vote is already cast? Ridiculous.

I don’t know why you now say it’s a Republican thing. Who cares? The facts are that (1) people vote even before the debates; and (2) being able to vote for up to 45 days opens the door to voter fraud, where the same person is comfortable voting over and over on multiple identities. And that’s a fact.

Don’t you mean ACORN?

Acorn doesn’t exist? Just because you put lipstick on a pig and change it’s dress doesn’t mean it ceases to exist and live and sleep in it’s own feces. Check out “Community Organizations International” and get back to me.

Eric Holder doesn’t “charge” anyone who is a friend to the Obama Administration. And you SHOULD absolutely stop “outfits” from registering voters if they are influencing or insisting that they register to a particular party affiliation, or for any particular candidate.

The State of California was recently registering to vote new sign-ups in the Medi-Cal portion of ObamaCare, with the party affiliation box pre-checked as Democrat. WRONG WRONG WRONG!

The State certainly should be precluded from doing that, and the NRA should not insist on Republican voters, and ACORN should not insist on registering Democrats.

And George Soros has nothing to do with voting machines.

Who is prosecuting SAC? Eric Holder’s justice department? And Lois Lerner walks free, while on average, Americans are audited by the IRS at a rate of about 1%. But if you donated to a Tea Party group, the number is more like 10%. IRS disclosed confidential tax returns of an anti Prop 8 group in California, which was a felony. No investigation, no charges, systematically ignored by Holder and Company. But let someone who doesn’t support the Administration step out of line? And the man come, and take you away!

Rosty was convicted in 1996 and thereafter pardoned by President Bill Clinton in 2000. Long before Holder headed up the Obama Justice Department.

As for Blago, the media was all over the sensationalism of that case, because it involved Obama’s senate seat that was up for sale. They had no choice but to hang Blago. They have no trouble letting one of their own make the ultimate sacrifice for the cause — so long as that prisoner doesn’t have the goods to “sing like a canary” from the birdcage.

I understand, but it’s the “I’m not saying they can’t do it” portion of your statement that is key. They have that right, and the right should not be denied them. You are free to shake your head in disapproval when you see groups of parishioners walking hand in hand to polls singing gospel songs, but we shouldn’t bar them from doing it.

“You cant vote early though just for the sake of voting early or not wanting to stand in line.”

Why not? What are they afraid of?

“It also concerns me that people vote in racial blocks or groups. People need to think like an individual instead of a herd mentality”

I agree with that, but none of it justifies taking measures to make it harder for those folks to vote. In my view the strategy backfires. When Florida took of those measures in 2012, African American turnout surged (yep, the 7 hour lines did not dissipate). Nobody expected Obama to win Florida (even Silver changed his mind on that state the day before the election). I’m convinced that the backlash from all of these new voting restrictions is what turned them out.

I’m not sure who you mean when you say “my side.” In my lifetime, I’ve voted for both parties equally, and have even voted Libertarian and Reform party a few times. I’m a swing voter, and the direction I go often depends who I think is the biggest threat at the time.

“Would your concern be the same if African American’s primarily voted for Republicans?”

We don’t have to guess. There was a time when African Americans DID vote primarily Republican. That started in the midst of the Civil War, and continued into the 1960s. It wasn’t until Dixiecrats started changing party affiliation that the African American vote also shifted. And, it just so happens that if I could go back to the 19th century and vote, I’d most certainly vote Republican along with my African American brothers and sisters. I might even march along with them in their Souls to the Polls march!

As a matter of fact, I did vote Republican for many years. My first Democrat was John Kerry in 2004, so it took a lot to flip me.

“Those voting restrictions effect everybody not just black people and minorities. They effect both parties equally.”

Take a look at the voter line stats for Florida in 2012, again. You’ll find that the 6-7 hour voting lines did not occur in primarily Republican voting areas. Even nationally, African Americans waited an average of 23 minutes to vote, compared to 12 minutes for whites; Hispanics waited 19 minutes.

Now, is that always intentional? No, I don’t think it is. Wealthier areas tend to have better facilities, just as a function of economics. Rural areas (which are much whiter than urban areas) are less densely populated. It is, to a large degree, coincidence. I’ve never uttered the word “racist” in these threads, nor do I. But a disparate impact is impossible to deny. When the same structural disadvantages impact the military vote, I am just as loud about their implications. Everyone has the right to vote, and every vote should count equally. That means equal access…for everyone.

It’s a localized occurrence, but it is occurring due to statewide policies. Local precinct chairpeople don’t have the authority to determine the number of voting stations or the number of machines they get. The supervisor of elections, Mike Bennett, hasn’t denied any of this. He even said “I wouldn’t have any problem making it harder. I would want them to vote as badly as I want to vote. I want the people of the state of Florida to want to vote as bad as that person in Africa who’s willing to walk 200 miles…This should not be easy.”

“When you live in a heavily populated area those things are more likely to happen.”

I agree. But a good elections board would put more polling stations in more densely populated areas, would put more voting machines in each polling station, and would adjust dynamically depending on expected turnout. The most recent development has been to deny voters access to restrooms at polling stations (http://j.mp/1ir9u2I). Now, I ask you, is it reasonable to expect someone to stand in line for 7 hours without using a bathroom?

Again, I don’t care about playing the blame game, here. It’s not like the GOP always benefits from these situations (in fact, I’m convinced that the backlash to these types of policies boosted minority turnout in Florida, thus giving the state to Obama). I just want these things fixed. No matter who benefits, making voting accessible to everybody is clearly a constitutional right.

I am aware of the facts in the snipes article, and I agree with it. As Snopes says, access to bathrooms is mixed. It should be at every polling station, or at least at every polling station where there may be long wait to vote. Better yet, there should be no long lines at all.

And, yes, many Republicans did act poorly at the county level, but Rick Scott signed the bill that rolled back early voting days from 14 days to 8, eliminating Souls to the Polls day in the process. When voting rights organizations predicted that the bill would result in long voting lines, it was, of course denied. When the voting lines materialized, Gov. Scott acted surprised. The result, however, was eminently foreseeable.

Let’s not forget that Rick Scott also personally called for and got a voter purge that knocked many legitimate voters off of the rolls: http://j.mp/1fnaog9

“500 seems pretty adequate”

Does look like adequacy, to you? http://j.mp/1isuRdW

People should not be allowed to vote early, because the campaign isn’t over until election day. You could vote for a candidate a few days before election day, and then a taped conversation he had with his girlfriend which reveals him to be a racist could surface via a sleazy TV show, and then you would be sorry you voted for him.

“Leading people to the polls” doesn’t sound like such a great thing to me. Voting should be an entirely independent act. And frankly, if you need to be encouraged to vote I don’t want you voting anyway. If you don’t care enough to go even slightly out of your way you are just going to vote for whomever you’re told to vote for anyway. Which is of course why democrats will do anything to ensure it continues.