Not to get political here, but I’m gonna get political.

[icecycle66]

I've been reading articles on voter ID problems. The most common theme is not that people should have to have an ID, but that it is hard for some people to get an ID. It's hard for poor people to afford it. It's hard for people without cars to get to the place they need to be to get an ID to get a license to drive the car they need to drive to get to the place you get drivers licenses. You have to have a birth certificate, or marriage license, or some other form to prove who you say you are to get an ID that tells other people who you are. And so on.

I still don't understand.

I knew a girl who was born in the woods, delivered by her uncle, never met anybody out of her family before she was 6, didn't know how to start a car, didn't know fans could be attached to ceilings, had to walk through half a mile of pine forest to get to the dirt road to get to the gravel road to get to the paved road to get the town that had one store that only sold one kind of milk, didn't have a social security number until she was 18, could play guitar and accordion like a beast, drank well water, learned to read using only the Holy Bible a mirror and the Hank Williams album "Moanin' the Blues" she played on a hand cranked Victrola, who thought candy meant honeysuckle or blackberries, still doesn't know the three branches of government, has never paid taxes, has never received "benefits", took her baths weekly with her family in the lake on the other side of the high-line, didn't know what the high-line was, hadn't handled money until she was 12, understood particle physics based on nothing but watching squirrels throw acorns at each other but didn't have the vocabulary to say "particle physics", shared her shoes with her brother, had to take turns on the corn meal machine because that was their only toy, and thought the sky was held up by the clouds.

She still got along fine when she decided to go to school and had to get a government ID to register. What's so hard about getting an ID card when you live in a city on 1 million people?

[jubal81]

I like that this forum is an oasis from politics. It's a place we can share a common interest and relate.

[matmosphere]

Eveybodies lives and problems are different. Just Because your friend was able to do this with (I'm assuming) little problem, doesn't mean that it would be the same for others. If she did this at eighteen she might have completely different obstacles than a thirty year old with a 9-5 job and kids to take care of.

I don't know that physically getting to the DMV is the problem most of the time, so much as having time available to actually go.

What is that saying? It's hard to judge others unless you've walked in their shoes.

[culturejam]

First I'd like to say that I agree that everyone should have a state-issued ID and that this should be required for voting. Now that Iv'e said that...

She still got along fine when she decided to go to school and had to get a government ID to register. What's so hard about getting an ID card when you live in a city on 1 million people?

I'm assuming that your banjo-playing, raised-by-bears friend is white. I will further assume that she grew up in a rural area with a low population density, and that her voting district was not specifically gerrymandered to her distinct and calculated political disadvantage, and that the employees at the local DMV didn't intimidate her when she showed up and had no clue how to fill out the paperwork or didn't have a SSN card.

I believe all voters should show proof of residency (in whatever form that state deems appropriate). But you have to make it easy for everyone who is a citizen to get that ID. This means no intimidation at the DMV basd on race.

I grew up in the American south. I know the bullshit racism that goes on at the local government level. When that shit stops, we can start complaining about people not having IDs. Until then, ease up on the sob stories about how trailer park white people easily got an ID. Of course they did.

[culturejam]

^^ Sorry if I'm coming off like a total dick. Maybe I'm just projecting my own issues with institutional racism. I just can't unsee the fucked-up stuff I've seen.

[icecycle66]

Hmmmmmm....
I think I may have misfired here.
This was supposed to be a prattling on Gallagher type joke rant, with a modern political perspective.

[alanp]

Two (or more) videos to link you to.

The first, the racist southern "literacy" test. This was designed to drum as many black people out of voting as possible in the Jim Crow days.

Oldschool investigative journalism. Of the infiltrate, and give them enough rope to hang themselves type.

[Muadzin]

I still don't get it why the US can't get its house in order when it comes to organizing elections/ You're supposed to have 2 centuries worth of experience with it. When its election time in the Netherlands everyone from age 18 gets a voting card in the mail, all they have to do is show up on election day with an ID. And everyone has to have an ID. It's mandatory. Want to collect your Tayda package at the local post office, gotta show some ID.

It's probably a question of different historical developments for both nations, so think no insult of it. But it does appear strange to outsiders.

[timbo_93631]

I came across this interesting Ami Horowitz piece on the perception of voter ID law's during the election:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rrBxZGWCdgs

[AntKnee]

Hmmmmmm....
I think I may have misfired here.
This was supposed to be a prattling on Gallagher type joke rant, with a modern political perspective.

Can open! Worms everywhere!!!!

[midwayfair]

Can we please please please please please please please not do this here?

[thesmokingman]

as long as a party(any party) loses focus, involvement, or popularity at the local and state level for long enough, it opens up the opportunity for someone else to set the real rules of the game. voting districts, voter id laws, polling places, electoral college procedures, etc all controlled by state or local governments.
having lived in Kansas up until about August of last year, I can speak from experience that there are elected officials out there actively using voter id laws to suppress voting and manipulate turnout and results(they don't like Mexicans in Kansas, legal or otherwise because their population is growing). ironically the same elected official that worked so hard for voter id laws under the premise of battling election fraud also worked very hard to block investigation into voting irregularities that a professor of mathematics discovered. even more ironically, all the voter fraud cases he's tried(still in the single digits) have been double voting(voting in two states) and not the illegal immigrants he originally set out to catch. if this sounds familiar, this guy has the President convinced he lost the popular vote because a couple million people voted in this fashion. in case you haven't gotten your daily dose of irony, the President's inner circle and family is filled with double voters.

[madbean]

Can we please please please please please please please not do this here?

I'm gonna go with Jon on this. No real reason to bring this discussion into this forum right now. We had a short political discussion after the election and that was enough. Gonna lock this one up.