Do you want to know what's so wrong about requiring ID to vote?

[msc545]

A guy walks into a bar in NYC, sits down and orders a bourbon.

He starts tapping his fingers on the bar constantly without stopping for the hour he is there.

It’s driving the bartender crazy, and he is glad to see him go.

The next day, he comes back, same routine.

The next day he comes in again and starts tapping.

Frustrated, the bartender says ‘Not for nothing, but you come in here every day, you order a bourbon, and you start this incessant tapping, and never stop. It’s really quite annoying, why do you do that?

The patron replies ‘why, I’m keeping the elephants away!’

The bartender says ‘elephants? What elephants? This is NYC, there arre no elephants here!’

To which the patron replies ‘You’re welcome’.

[loveslongnails]

There is nothing ´´wrong´´ with the idea of an ID method that identifies you as an eligible voter. What IS wrong about it is how it´s getting done, and who is responsible for the implementation of it.

It can NOT be done in a matter of months for some people. It can NOT be done by states that are run by governments who are INTENTIONALLY trying to suppress certain groups and keep them from voting. They can not be trusted, and all you red state magats in the South, and the Bible belt, don´t even think about denying this.

Once again, I will ruin your magat day with facts about voter fraud in the USA --- it does not exist in ANY meaningful or significant way. It has NEVER ONCE

[loveslongnails]

... NEVER ONCE altered the outcome of an election on a Federal or State level. The incidence of prosecutable voter fraud in the USA for the past 75 years is 0.0006% It is yet another maga dog whistle, and nothing more.

[msc545]

I wouldn't take the excuses for it at face value because, as you have definitely shown, they are completely incorrect. The reason that the right wing wants to do this is to keep people from voting who might not vote for their candidates. That is the sole reason for the fury about this from the right.

[loveslongnails]

No argument there.

[canamlusciouslad73]

There are (lady) elephants in EVERY city !!!

[MrChinaski]

Pretty much every rich country in the world other than the US has voting sorted.

In Australia there is a national election roll, so that's a start, and compulsory voting. Turn out is more than 90%. If you are on the roll, name and registered address at the booth is enough. A typical election involves more than 15 million votes of which two dozen after the event appear suspicious.

I know Americans hate Government, but it seems that if you care about democracy a priority would be setting up and funding a national institution that make banal administrative tasks like running elections really easy to do. The same body here also determines election boundaries, so no jerrymandering. These things should be simple, painless and apolitical.

[msc545]

Before Trump it generally was painless and not very political. Trump has changed all that.

[CaptainObivous]

Requiring ID to vote isn't the problem, the method in which it is achieved is the problem. There would be less push back against voter ID, if there were state or federal programs that covered the cost of ID's for low income individuals and they were more easily accessible, solve those 2 problems and requiring ID to vote is mostly a non issue.

[msc545]

Except that would defeat the purpose of requiring voter ID, at least for the right wing. The purpose of requiring voter ID is to discourage people from voting at all, which is Trump's goal. He is terrified that if enough people vote, the Democrats will win back both the House and the Senate, and he will be impeached and convicted successfully.

[msc545]

If you want to maintain that the real purpose of requiring voter ID is to keep undocumented persons from voting, then what you need to do is provide some evidence that they actually do vote and that somehow, in this country, it has changed the results of even a single election. None of that's true, and you can't provide evidence to the contrary. However, if you can, do it now, right here.

[RachyRach]

These are the kind of posts that keep me coming back to GaG

[Anonymous]

They use ID in England
No major shift in voters but the Nazis are in power here now so maybe it was a bad thing

[msc545]

Yeah, just maybe?

[Opinion Owner]

They're on par with your Democrats

Communists mascarading as socialists, penchants for self-enrichment, spending decades in power and young boys

[msc545]

You have just described our Republicans.

[Opinion Owner]

Are they not capitalists and they're both perverts but favour girls according to the Epstein photos and the Gaetz case

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Louisiana has required State ID ever since before I was eligible to vote. I think it's preposterous that anyone would be allowed to vote without legal photo identification.

[msc545]

Cheers because some backward red state has required it that does not mean it's okay or reasonable. It isn't. It suppresses voting, and that is the only reason that a red state would be in favor of it. Is also the only reason that Trump is in favor of it. Why are you so afraid of people voting?

[Anonymous]

Now California has passed a law making it a crime for non-CNN news media to report fraud by government officials and the non-profits they give taxpayer money to. And no one is doing anything to stop it.

[msc545]

Prove it.

[Opinion Owner]

nypost.com/.../

[msc545]

Okay, thanks for the link. I don't understand what this law does and why it does whatever it does. Can you explain, please?

[Opinion Owner]

If you interview someone who is committing fraud, it is now a crime to broadcast that interview. For example, there are more hospices on one block in Van Nuys than it would take to hold all the hospice patients in the entire state. They have received billions of dollars in Medicaid funding over the past decade based on the number of patients they treat and the treatment those patients receive, but the hospices are all empty and have never had any patients. It is now illegal to report that as a news story.

[msc545]

That is very strange. I wonder what the motivation was behind passing that law, and I wonder how long it's gonna take before somebody challenges that in court. I can see that you might want to challenge someone who reported it if it's not true, but if it's true, I don't see why reporting it is a problem. Sorry, but this is making very little sense to me. It seems to me that if you can't report it, that is a free speech violation and a violation of freedom of the press.

[NathanDavis]

if it works... it's not dumb

[msc545]

Works very well to keep people from voting.

[Sevenpointfive]

i don't see anything wrong with it.

[msc545]

The wrong with it is that it suppresses the vote, and the people that are in favor of it are in favor of it specifically because it does have that effect.

[Sevenpointfive]

all citizens are required to have an id. that's the law.

[msc545]

We want all citizens to vote too, and by imposing this, we will force a substantial number of citizens not to vote. We strongly encourage people to vote, and that is public policy. The excuse that illegal aliens vote and change the outcomes of elections is a pernicious lie promulgated by the right wing in this country and is not substantiated by any statistics or incidents whatsoever. Again, I repeat: it is a lie. If you want to support something that originated with a lie and is being promoted by a lie, go ahead. I am certainly not going to.

[Sevenpointfive]

i had my id scanned to vote before. i don't see the difference? are you saying this suppresses illegal aliens votes? that's just not something i care about. i don't think they should vote.

[msc545]

It also suppresses the votes of many other groups of people including but not limited to the handicapped, the elderly, and anyone who isn't white. There are multiple reasons for this that are too complicated for me to eluciate, but I think you understand what I am talking about. If this did not have the effect of suppressing the vote of other groups of people, the right wing would not be so in favor of it. They are.

[msc545]

We may not care about it, but it happens, and that is the reason why we are not going to demand ID in order to let people vote. Offer some proof that illegal aliens are voting instead of just deciding that it's true without any evidence.