# I Pit the ID-demanding GOP vote-suppressors (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 12, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943 "2012-06-12T19:15:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 203
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4041 "2014-05-05T16:06:47Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > If someone feels that the deliberate killing of a human being by a state of the United States is in any way equivalent to the demand that people present photo IDs before voting… then all I can say is: > > (1) OK, I get that you have extremely strong feelings on the issue, but > (2) …those feelings are completely misplaced, because the two should not remotely engender the same feelings. > > A imprisoned, helpless human life being taken by sanctioned state action is simply not in the same moral universe as the desire to make people present photo IDs. I accept your representation that you feel the same way about both, but I reject completely the objective validity of that feeling. Imagine how you would feel if the state killed in your name and you didn’t even get to vote because of some bullshit voter ID law that was designed to impart a partisan advantage to the party that is more likely to pass laws enacting the death penalty. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4042 "2014-05-05T16:38:20Z")
How very typical of such partisan coverage! Hardly a mention of the all-important issue of voter confidence! Sure, voters in the less desirable categories will likely face some minor problems, but the voter standing in line for four-five hours will be assured that his government is on the case, bending every effort to protect his confidence. Doesn’t seem to be any mention of valet parking in the more affluent suburban voting districts, but we may be assured that such an oversight will be corrected. And we might be remiss if we didn’t even mention the forthright and fearless work of the Ohio Voter Integrity Project, whose website is offered here: [http://ohiovoterintegrityproject.org/](http://ohiovoterintegrityproject.org/) Where else in the liberal-biased media will you find such reports as this! > [@](#): > > \*_Voter Fraud Bombshell hits North Carolina \*\* > \* > Voter Fraud Confirmed–Up to 765 have voted in two states._ One gasps in horror, clutches one’s pearls and faints dead away! > [@](#): > > …“This confirms our deepest concerns,” said Jay DeLancy, Executive Director of the Voter Integrity Project of NC. “We always knew that if the State Board of Elections cared to investigate such matters, they would find ample evidence of voter fraud.”… Well, of course they always knew that, and knew it before any such investigation was conducted. Sometimes “knowing” is less a matter of actual documentation that simple clear common sense and an intuitive grasp of the native skulduggery of unscrupulous lefties! A pity, perhaps, that there is no mention of the voting preference of these scoundrels, but do we need any such? Isn’t it clear just what sort of loathsome scoundrel would vote in NC, and then nip over to an adjoining state to vote again! Lest you doubt: > [@](#): > > …DeLancy had harsh words for extreme left-wing organizations who lash out against advocates of voter ID. > > “Progressives use that circular reasoning in order to prevent any real discussion of election reform,” he said. “Instead, they want to brand anybody advocating for reform as a racist or as a hater of the homeless.” > > The NAACP and the League of Women Voters have filed suit against North Carolina to prevent safeguards like voter ID and an end to same-day registration (and voting) during Early Voting… Well, there you have it! The NAACP and the League of Women Voters! No mention thus far of CASA activists instructing illegal aliens in the techniques of fraudulent voting, but surely that is only a matter of time. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4043 "2014-05-11T04:20:16Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > The subversion of our ideas is just as disgusting as a single man on a gurney fighting the chemicals that poison his body, because it is poisoning the political process, something bigger than any man. And the political process that it’s poisoning is ultimately what decided the fate of this man and others in his position, so yes, it is offensive on the same level as the death penalty because the system that is subverted is the system that determines whether or not we even have a death penalty. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4044 "2014-05-11T11:11:19Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Imagine how you would feel if the state killed in your name and you didn’t even get to vote because of some bullshit voter ID law that was designed to impart a partisan advantage to the party that is more likely to pass laws enacting the death penalty. This type of concern is precisely why Voter ID laws don’t worry me. I am very concerned about being able to vote. I am more than willing to obtain and keep current photo ID, in order to ensure that my vote will always count. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4045 "2014-05-11T11:53:10Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > This type of concern is precisely why Voter ID laws don’t worry me. I am very concerned about being able to vote. I am more than willing to obtain and keep current photo ID, in order to ensure that my vote will always count. If obtaining and keeping current ID was just a matter of willingness for many people, I would have no problem with these laws. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4046 "2014-05-11T11:54:22Z")
Do you have a problem with requiring people to maintain and keep current ID to make a living? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4047 "2014-05-11T11:59:03Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Do you have a problem with requiring people to maintain and keep current ID to make a living? Where in the Constitution is the guarantee of the right to make a living? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4048 "2014-05-11T12:18:01Z")
There’s no right to either. Both are subject to qualifications and the state has wide latitude to determine those qualifications, so long as said qualifications are not discriminatory. If getting ID is onerous, and discriminatory, then it violates the Constitution to require it for anything. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4049 "2014-05-11T12:23:07Z")
> **[Voting rights in the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_rights_in_the_United_States)** > > Voting rights in the United States, specifically the enfranchisement and disenfranchisement of different groups, has been a moral and political issue throughout United States history. > Eligibility to vote in the United States is governed by the United States Constitution and by federal and state laws. Several constitutional amendments (the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-sixth specifically) require that voting rights of U.S. citizens cannot be abridged on account of race, color, previous con... The “right to vote” is not explicitly stated in the U.S. Constitution except in the above referenced amendments, and only in reference to the fact that the franchise cannot be denied or abridged based solely on the aforementioned qualifications. In other words, the “right to vote” is perhaps better understood, in layman’s terms, as only prohibiting certain forms of legal discrimination in establishing qualifications for suffrage. States may deny the “right to vote” for other reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4050 "2014-05-11T13:31:48Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > If obtaining and keeping current ID was just a matter of willingness for many people, I would have no problem with these laws. A small number of voters may experience slightly greater burdens, but even those are not “excessively burdensome requirements,” sufficient to invalidate Voter ID statutes. See Crawford v Marion County. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4051 "2014-05-11T14:40:33Z")
What? _Crawford vs Madison County_? Why didn’t you mention that before? Well, that totally changes everything, doesn’t it? Somebody in a black robe actually agrees with you! You keep doing that, keep trying to narrow the focus down to that one angel dancing on the head of a pin. “Is that the Charleston or the Two-Step? Well, if its the Two-Step, I totally win, everybody can go home now.” Yes, its legal and constitutional. But legislation that knowingly and openly benefits one political party over another is a perversion of justice. The League of Women Voters is not a criminal enterprise, CASA volunteers are not instructing illegal immigrants on techniques for bogus voting, and there is no excuse for buggering early voting to screw minority voters. You seriously imagine that this one decision makes all of that kosher and kool? No, I don’t think you do. You got a long list there, hoss, but stupid ain’t on it. Do us a favor, OK? If the Republicans get away with this crap, and squeeze out another undeserved electoral victory like squeezing the pus out of a pimple, please don’t come down here crowing about the “will of the people”. Your respect for the will of the people has already been demonstrated. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4052 "2014-05-11T16:18:10Z")
The Republicans are acting within the Constitution. The Democrats want to silence their critics and are mounting a direct attack on the 1st amendment. You know what they call a country where everyone can vote but the government dominates the election campaign? A banana republic. When Democrats stop trying to repeal the 1st amendment, then they’ll have a leg to stand on when criticizing Republicans for passing laws that are perfectly legal and reasonable and supported by the vast majority of Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4053 "2014-05-11T17:02:24Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The Republicans are acting within the Constitution. The Democrats want to silence their critics and are mounting a direct attack on the 1st amendment. You know what they call a country where everyone can vote but the government dominates the election campaign? A banana republic. > > When Democrats stop trying to repeal the 1st amendment, then they’ll have a leg to stand on when criticizing Republicans for passing laws that are perfectly legal and reasonable and supported by the vast majority of Americans. Campaign finance laws and repealing the first amendment aren’t the same thing. Why do you have to lie to make your point? Maybe it’s because your point is shit? Don’t lie, Adher, at least lose with dignity. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4054 "2014-05-11T17:10:10Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > Campaign finance laws and repealing the first amendment aren’t the same thing. > > Why do you have to lie to make your point? Maybe it’s because your point is shit? > > Don’t lie, Adher, at least lose with dignity. It’s generally more accurate to assume that, if what **adaher** is saying is wrong, it’s because he really believes it, rather than because he’s lying. The points of contact between him and rightness are few and far between. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4055 "2014-05-11T17:28:16Z")
Or, you could actually think a little, Lobohan, and read the Udall amendment, which does in fact repeal the 1st amendment protections for political speech, and which the Democrats are voting on. In a rational world, this would be a much bigger deal than voter ID laws. It’s especially rich that Democrats are accusing Republicans of using voter ID laws to benefit Republicans, when Democrats are actually on a campaign to intimidate and silence their critics. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4056 "2014-05-11T17:41:25Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > . . . when Democrats are actually on a campaign to intimidate and silence their critics. What on Earth are you talking about? Campaign-finance reform would not clearly benefit either party over the other; it cuts across that divide. The point of it is to reduce the political influence of the rich, over **both** parties. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4057 "2014-05-11T17:47:11Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Or, you could actually think a little, Lobohan, and read the Udall amendment, which does in fact repeal the 1st amendment protections for political speech, and which the Democrats are voting on. > > In a rational world, this would be a much bigger deal than voter ID laws. It’s especially rich that Democrats are accusing Republicans of using voter ID laws to benefit Republicans, when Democrats are actually on a campaign to intimidate and silence their critics. No. The Democrats are looking to keep billionaires from swaying elections. You don’t care, because it benefits you, and your ratfuck ideology. Wanting campaign finance laws is in no way the equal of trying to keep minorities from voting. Even a fool could see that. I don’t think you’re a fool, so I think you’re a liar. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4058 "2014-05-11T17:58:35Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > No. The Democrats are looking to keep billionaires from swaying elections. You don’t care, because it benefits you, and your ratfuck ideology. [Here’s some interesting more about that ratfuck ideology.](http://www.salon.com/2014/05/10/libertarians_scary_new_star_meet_bryan_caplan_the_rights_next_great_philosopher/) ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4059 "2014-05-11T18:41:30Z")
Anybody know how it stands now, six months out? I’ve read all sorts of stuff about individual states responses, the court battles, the wins and losses. But I don’t really have an overall view on this. IIRC, the Republicans in places like Texas and SC seem like they will just flat out get away with it. Others, not so much. Does anyone have a reliable source for the overall box score? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/4060 "2014-05-11T21:09:14Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Anybody know how it stands now, six months out? I’ve read all sorts of stuff about individual states responses, the court battles, the wins and losses. But I don’t really have an overall view on this. IIRC, the Republicans in places like Texas and SC seem like they will just flat out get away with it. Others, not so much. > > Does anyone have a reliable source for the overall box score? [Here’s a snapshot,](http://www.fairelectionsnetwork.com/spreading-suppression-restrictive-voting-laws-across-united-states) but it shows only where voter-ID laws, etc., have been passed, not efforts to fight them. We won’t know until after e-day whether they got away with it, i.e., how many eligible voters will be turned away from the polls for this reason or that; and, absent some laser-focused polling, we’ll never know how many will be too discouraged by the new laws to bother. There’s always a chance the whole campaign might backfire and increase voter turnout beyond what might be expected in a midterm (which would be bad for the Pubs); people appreciate a thing most when someone is trying to take it away from them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943.md?page=202) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943.md?page=204)