You have to have an address listed at the precinct you’re trying to vote in. When you give your name, you also have to be able to give the address listed for that person in their book. A name with no address will not get you a ballot.
The poll tax argument doesn’t easily fly given how careful the laws are to provide for free alternatives to everything, but I do think there is a case to be made that requiring of IDs puts an extra burden on the voters. That burden is in turn more likely to affect the already-marginalized members of society than it is the comfortable folks. The latter will of course have a driver’s license or find it easy to figure out what the alternative ID requirements are and/or how to get them. The former might not. The latter, if they happen to turn up at the polls after work only to realize they left their wallet at home, probably have a car to run on over and pick it up without missing their chance. The former might not be able to get back and forth on time, or not have enough time left before their next job starts. And so on.
Signature-matching, on the other hand, is about the lowest burden possible, and I don’t think there’s much of a case to be made that it is more prone to fraud than most of the ID requirements are. It’s not exactly easy to convincingly forge the signature of a stranger even if you can see it to work from (in New York at least, they cover the printed version while you are signing). And there will always be that record to challenge later if necessary – there will never be any record of whether the poll worker was actually looking at the 200th ID that got flashed in front of his eyes that day or whether he was daydreaming. Don’t even get me started on utility bills being acceptable. (I’m assuming these states that use IDs require signatures also?)
That varies state to state too. In New York you just walk up, give your name, twiddle your thumbs for two minutes while the poll worker tries to figure out if V comes before or after W, then sign on the line opposite the printed signature (which the poll worker is covering). They glance at the signatures to make sure they look alike, and assuming they do, you get your ballot.
I live in Ohio, and even though every poll worker at the table has known me my whole life, they still check my ID.
I think so. But I’ve gotten into the habit of just handing it over when they ask my name so I won’t have to enunciate or spell. They have a little book with names of all the voters registered for that polling place, and signatures. Then you have to sign next to your name.
Interestingly, even though my housemate moved to another city in the same state many years ago, and is registered and has voted there, we still get registration cards for her every year at our house.
Such as?
We live in the same state, and nobody asked for my address. They asked for my name, which is long and hard to spell, and after spelling it for them (because had I simply said it, they’d never have found me), they flipped to my name and asked, “Is that you?” I said yes, and then I voted.
They were supposed to ask for your address.
I gave my name (last name is an uncommon spelling so it’s distinctive) and gave my address when asked and they confirmed that I was on the roll for that voting station. No ID. My wife and I own a home and have voted there several times before so maybe they were confident that a complete imposter wouldn’t show up claiming to be me. (ETA: Minnesota).
In states where signatures are compared, where do the signatures come from? Is it from a voter registration card or something else? How are the signatures transferred to the register?
Yes, both my wife and I showed our Ohio drivers licenses when we voted, after being asked by the poll worker. They always ask.
It means Airman Doors thinks you’re trolling. On Fark.com and other less reputable corners of the internet quoting someone’s post and then giving them “marks out of ten” is a way of rating the effectiveness of someone’s troll.
I think Airman was out of line to do that in this forum. IMHO that’s fine in the Pit, but not here.
Now before we go accusing people of accusing people of being trolls, I thought he scored the post poorly because it was a cheap attempt to snipe at everyone in favor of requiring ID while voting as an uncivilized racist.
Maybe I have an honest face.
Texas here. We show a voter registration card or a driver’s license unless we are personally known to one of the election officials who can vouch for us.
Indiana. Yes, I showed my driver’s license.
Most banks where I live will no longer allow their employed notaries to notarize anything that isn’t bank business, even though the notary process is not legally meant to be controlled by anyone other than the notary his/herself, being a notary public, not a notary First National Bank. That said, there is also a schedule of fees for notarizing a statement (usually around $2) and to notarize a signature for a stranger, a notary generally needs proof that the person is who they claim to be which requires… ID. So I’m not sure how someone who doesn’t have ID to vote can procure a notarized statement saying that they’re too poor to get ID in the first place. It’s a circular problem.
It’s not just cost that’s at issue, it’s the process. In Pennsylvania, you have to get to a DMV center during their limited hours, and you have to have your birth certificate (and if you don’t have one, it is not free to get a certified copy, not from any state in the nation) and a Social Security card, and two documents from a very short list – mortgage, lease, W-2, utility bills or gun permit – that prove residency. If you do not work and your home/utilities are not in your name, you have to bring the person whose name they are all in, plus some piece of mail sent to you in your name. If your name has changed, you have to bring supporting documents (marriage certificate, divorce decree) for that, as well.
All of that can present a substantial barrier to someone who is indigent and/or transient, and they can end up being disenfranchised because their cousin who lets them sleep on his basement couch couldn’t take off from work to go with them to get a photo ID. Or if they “live” at a homeless shelter, where they cannot receive mail. (In which case they are not eligible for an ID card at all.)
And that ought not be acceptable to anyone who truly believes that voting is a right extended to all citizens of this country, not just citizens who have tidy lives.
You know that being employed or even being employable aren’t requirements for voting, don’t you?
It’s a remarkable display of class privilege to glibly hand wave the real barriers that are put in place for the already marginalized in our society as being inconsequential when in fact, they are anything but, if they are causing people to be unable to vote and be a part of the process. And it’s not like people are going to cause a furor about this, they just go about their lives, resigned to the fact that they can’t vote over what amounts to nothing more than systematic nonsense.
Utah. You bet your bippy they did. You have to show your voter registration card and a photo ID, or if you have a Utah “real ID” drivers license (as hard to get as a U.S. passport), you show that. You sign the book next to your name on the voter rolls, THEN you get a ballot. Two poll workers work this process, with a roving “watcher.”
With one server every ATM machine in the world can be linked to your home precinct to cast your vote . Every state ID & driver lic has a bar code with your info, so you can swipe it (just like you do for E tickets at the airport). That way we can eliminate absentee mailings (sorry ACORN). One ID…one vote. Too difficult? still vote in person, only with a picture ID, and leave a fingerprint on the ballot, like you do when cashing a check . Enough voter fraud, you can’t get a COSTCO card without your photo on it. Oh, this will let every serviceman, stationed where- ever, vote . An officer in iraq was tried, but found innocent , for not forwarding his men’s ballots (thousands) because he knew most all were for Mc Cain. Court Decided it was an “oversight”.
“Sorry, ACORN?”
I don’t think so…
My memory isn’t what it once was, but I’m pretty sure that no one did.