Saturday, September 17, 2005

Can I see some ID?

Here are the rules.

Register to vote if you are eligible, do it before the deadline.

Show up at your voting place with a valid State issued photo ID.

Vote, once.

Done.

Now, why is that so hard for the left to figure out? I read an opinion piece by Cynthia Tucker from the Atlanta Journal Constitution. What a load of liberal horse manure.
Perhaps that reader has changed his mind after reading or watching wrenching accounts of the devastation by Hurricane Katrina, which so grievously punished the poor - families so destitute they couldn't buy a bus ticket to get out of town. They certainly didn't have cars, so they had no need for driver's licenses. But they are Americans, too, and they have every right to cast ballots for the candidates of their choice.

When Louisiana adopted a new voter ID requirement in 1997, it acknowledged the possibility of disenfranchising a large number of voters with a law drawn too rigidly, so it installed a fail-safe. Voters without photo IDs were allowed to sign an affidavit swearing that they weren't lying when they declared themselves to be Mattie Simmons or John Tate. That way, their votes can still be counted. Those ballots may be contested, however, by any candidate demanding a recount in a close race.

Georgia, by contrast, dumped its fail-safe mechanism. The old law allowed voters without IDs to sign affidavits attesting to their identities but that didn't satisfy callous lawmakers determined to restrict the franchise. Its new voter ID law, the most restrictive in the nation, will undoubtedly block from the ballot box thousands of poor and elderly Georgians - solid citizens and regular voters who simply have no driver's license or other state-sponsored ID.

Poor people and the elderly cannot be expected to have a valid State issued photo ID. It it too much of a burden for them. They don't have cars, they don't need drivers licenses so why force them to get an ID? They should be able to sign an affidavit that says that's who they are.

Sounds great, if you are a Democratic politician. How can the Democrats expect to win back the south without from the dead, from convicted felons and multiple votes from really enthusiastic constituents?

Why does the left expect so little from the poor and elderly?

All these people without cars, how do they get around? Have they ever ventured outside their homes? Do they have any family? How did they sign up for government assistance? Could they ask a friend to take them to the DMV? The AARP will be holding bus tours of DMV offices to get seniors registered you can bet. How hard is it to get a photo ID? Churches will be doing much of the same thing. People who want to vote legally will have that chance. People who are ineligible to vote, well they will be "disenfranchised".

The more I think about this, the more it makes me think the left has the problem with prejudice.

1 comment:

pappy said...

You would think it would be that simple to protect our franchise from fraud.