I live in and vote in California (LA County, specifically). This was my first time voting, and I was very surprised that when I went into the polling place, they just asked for my name, and to write my address and signature on a piece of paper.
What kind of voter fraud protection is that? They didn’t even ask me for my birthdate, or to see ANY kind of ID! What’s up with that?
Strange, ain’t it? I was an election observer in Mexico, and there they have voter IDs with so many safeguards they’re essentially impossible to duplicate.
Funny, I’ve been wondering about this for years and I just realized the answer. I think it’s because there is no national ID in the U.S. No one is required by law to have an ID, so they couldn’t turn people away at the polling place for not having one.
You have to be a registered voter. If you show up twice, they will already have your vote recorded. If you show up for someone who is not coming, you have to have their information, including the fact that they did register, and are not going to vote.
By the way, they did ask me for identification, although not for any particular type. If I had not had it, I would not have been turned away, although they might have asked me to sign my registration card again, for comparison to the one I filed when I did register.
Voter fraud is not impossible, of course, but it is generally accomplished by faking the registration of people who don’t exist, or who are registered in multiple jurisdictions. Fake ID’s are not that hard to make up. Dead folks have had a fairly high turn out ratio in some times and places. “Jim voted straight party tickets his whole life, why should he stop now?” The thing about it is that it takes crooked registrars to do it enough to have a reliable influence, and in that case, identification is not much of a problem.
“The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, ‘We did it ourselves.’” ~ Lao Tzu ~
Here’s my take one it:
One party would like it while the other doesn’t.
The Dem’s don’t want it bacause they claim that the poorer people (who are usualy Dem’s) will be detured from voting because they are less likely to be able to prove who they are - may not have a driver licence or even such things as a phone bill showing address (since their phone has been disco’d due to not paying the bill), mortgage statement (since they rent or don’t have an actual place to live).
The Rep’s want photo ID because they claim the Dem’s motto of “vote early and often” is facilitated by not having to show photo ID.
Depends on where you live; here in Georgia, you have to show a photo ID, or sign an affidavit affirming your identity.
The reason is that you don’t want to prohibit someone from voting just because they don’t have an ID.
There is no “national” ID card in the US. Most often a driver’s license is used as an ID, but what if you don’t drive and so don’t have one? The polling place I used yesterday had a long list of things they would accept as ID but if you didn’t have any of them, you could still vote by signing a statement swearing you were who you said you were.
Of course, you still have to be a registered voter and they had a printout of all registered voters in the precinct as well as a voter card with your information on it. But you can’t prevent someone from voting simply because they don’t have a photo ID. They do have a right to vote too.
I had to show a photo ID here in Texas, although I wouldn’t have if I’d had my voter card (which has no picture, but has your voter information, such as address and precinct and such). They mail the voter cards out about every two years, I believe.
In New York, they have a book with the signatures of everyone in the election district. They find your name and you sign next to it. If the signatures match, fine. No muss, no fuss and pretty hard to fake.
Speaking as a former campaign worker, I think it would be dead easy for party operatives to obtain this information. Most of them already have lists of registered voters and have contacted them by phone; in my experience, at least one phone call in fifty turns up a voter who tells the campaign worker he or she does not plan to vote. (Even if the legitimate voter changes his mind later, all the fraudulent voter has to do is get to the polls first.)
As a side note, voters in my area are not even asked to show a card, just to state their name and address. I’d be really surprised if the system isn’t abused fairly frequently.
In Monterey County, the pollers checked ID cards.
I’d wondered this myself, yesterday.
I wasn’t checked, but I guess they could compare my signatures.
Someone complained about this on talk radio here in Boston yesterday. I admit I’m a bit surprised, but I note that they checked your name and address on the way in and on the way out. They checked off my name on the list in both cases. So, while I could conceivably walk in and claim to be someone else (none of the poll workers knew me by sight), the truth would come out when the real holder of that name came by and found him/herself already checked off. I haven’t heard of that happening – presumably we’re an honest bunch.
In some you have to bring in some sort of evidence of voter registration which may be a permanent document issued by the government, or it may be something your registered party sends you shortly before the election, that contains your proper address and voter number – but does not necessarily ID you as a person. In others, you appear on a list the poll worker has, and s/he asks you name, DOB, address and if your answer matches the list, there you go. In others you just affirm that you are who you claim you are, and there is only a problem if someone else shows up wanting to vote in the same name, or if one of the poll workers recognizes you and realizes what you’re trying to pull. Also depends a lot if there is much history of voter fraud in the jurisdiction; if it has a tradition of low-turnout, little-or-no-contest elections, the authorities may decide they will not bother making it a hassle.
Here our voter reg card has been required since waaaay back – and since 1980 it happens to include photo-ID. The respective party ward bosses get a copy of the registration lists for their turf in advance of the election, and they can bring it up with the Board if they spot any instances of 25 voters “residing” in one trailer, or of the late Dr. Jones being still registered.
Of course, here General Election day is a full blown holiday so we all could just drive from town to town to town voting repeatedly…
In Massachusetts, the party organizers used to (and maybe still) check the polling places during the day to see who had voted. If someone had not voted who they thought would vote their way, the party rep would phone them and remind them to vote. So it would be easy for a corrupt person to check toward the end of the day, and send in someone bogus to take the place of the voter who didn’t show up.
Here in Chicago, they pull out your signature card from a big book when you come in, and it’s checked against a signature on the spot by both a Democratic and a Republican election judge before they hand you a ballot.
I don’t know what would happen if they didn’t both agree that it was your signature, but voter registration cards are mailed out a few days before the election that show the address of your polling place (mine was different this year), your own name/address info, and the number of the Board of Elections, with instructions to call a hotline # if anyone tries to keep you from voting. Seems pretty decent protection to me. Plus after the “butterfly ballot” fiasco, they have you run your ballot through a machine when you’re done to make sure you haven’t over- or under-voted.
In Missouri, on a regular basis, the Election Commissioners send out cards with all your information on it. This card is checked by the election judges. If you don’t have this card, a government issued ID with a photo is required.
Then your name is checked in the book listing all the registered voters for your precinct.
Then you are given a ballot and allowed to vote.
If your name is not on the list, they call the election commisioners headquarters to see if there is later information available. If not, you may be allowed to vote by affidavit, whereby you swear that you are elegible to vote.
The whole idea of small precincts and election judges supposedly was based on the theory that the judges would have personal knowledge of who the residents were.
And by the way, Missouri uses the butterfly ballot with no apparent problems!
The first time I voted, they checked my voter registration card. Now, I sign a book and they check against my signature.
I can relate to this. I only obtained a photo ID ($15 at the DMV. They’re acceptable as legal proof of identity, age, address etc.) because you need one to obtain foodstamps. Now that I am in the programs, I have let the card expire. It is no longer a legally valid ID and does not have my current address. But, getting a new card would be $15 plus a fine for allowing the first card to expire.
How about this…I am registered to vote in 2 precincts (unintentionally), because when I got married I got a new card with my married name on it, and moved to another city. I received my new card with the correct info on it. My mother called me a while back to tell me I had gotten a new card sent to their address (the address I used as my permanent address while I was in school) with my maiden name on it! I am a registered voter in 2 cities under 2 different names. I only voted once in my currect city, but I wonder how often that happens. I did not have to show id, so I could have gone to both.
And of course there’s the fact that students can very easily commit voter fraud. Having already voted absentee in my home state a week ago, I could very well have gone to the New Hampshire polls, declared myself a resident, and voted.
I didn’t, but there are plenty of people who do.
They checked me quite carefully. As they did for everyone else in line. Photo ID required, Driver’s License preferred.