# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/81 "2012-06-13T00:12:38Z")
> [@](#): > > …Florida’s new laws, for example, shrank the early-voting period from 14 days to eight and eliminated voting on the last Sunday before Election Day. In 2008, scores of African-American churches in Florida and across the country held “Souls to the Polls” drives, in which churches helped parishioners go directly from the pews to the polls after Sunday services… The cite is from TruthOut, but I’ve seen it in a bunch of the lowlife sites I peruse…Lefty as all git out, so cootie advisory in effect… > **[Congressional Black Caucus Rallies Preachers to Tackle Voter-ID Laws](https://truthout.org/articles/congressional-black-caucus-rallies-preachers-to-tackle-voter-id-laws/)** > > Opponents of the photo ID requirement consider it the equivalent of a modern-day poll tax. Someone want to explain the necessity here? How this improves the confidence of the electorate? Sure as shit doesn’t improve the confidence of the _black_ electorate. Do more felons and illegal aliens vote on Sunday? Gee, you think it might have something to do with this program getting out the black vote? Nah! Of course not! Its about the sacred purity of our voter rolls! If you buy that one, I’ll introduce you to a friend from Nigeria, with a very much excellent investment opportunity… ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/82 "2012-06-13T00:24:47Z")
> [@FuriousGeorge](#): > > If I am working three jobs, there is a pretty good chance i will be at work during polling hours, not sleeping or probably even home. So avail yourself of another means to exercise your franchise. Have you never heard of an absentee ballot? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/83 "2012-06-13T00:27:31Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > This is the most infuriating subject I can think of. I have no idea what kind of utopia you all live in but to say that voter fraud does not exist or isn’t a problem is ridiculous. I grew up hearing stories of Boss Frank Hague running the state from his throne in Jersey City. The election night mantra was “Hudson County has not been heard from” as he held back the results to wait to see how many corpses needed to get to the polls to sway the statewide or national elections. Things have improved slightly since. I welcome anything that cuts down on the fraud and corruption that is absolutely happening every fucking election. I mentioned it jokingly earlier but fuck it. Getting an ID is not an onerous task. The only people I run into that don’t currently have an form of ID are illegal immigrants. Even they have ID, but usually from their home country. Its nearly impossible to live in this state without a government ID. It certainly makes things difficult. To say that having to present an ID that nearly 100% of the adults already have is an insurmountable obstacle is so far out of the realm of reality it makes my head spin. Its as if some people want to vilify a simple ID check to promote their own agenda. I hope that they are just misguided and not in favor of voter fraud. Dude, just because there was a historical problem with voter problem in famously-corrupt Jersey, doesn’t mean that it scales up nationally. All the data (see BrainGluttons’s post) indicates there is no problem. Which means you are either an idiot or a scalawag, possibly both. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/84 "2012-06-13T00:34:11Z")
All of you who so eagerly espouse the various Republican attempts to suppress the vote are disgraces. You do not DESERVE to live in a democracy. You deserve to be in the majority in a place like Syria, where a small minority controls the country by keeping a stranglehold on the levers of power. This is the government you so eagerly seek, you don’t give a SHIT about democracy, you just want YOUR people in power, by hook or by crook, and to HELL with America. To hell with the lot of YOU! ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/85 "2012-06-13T00:37:17Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > The problem does exist. And the solution is part of everyday life, not a “Big Government” intrusion of any kind. > > It’s been going on longer than this, but the first instance of voter fraud that I became aware of was LBJ getting elected to the Senate in 1948 by a bunch of dead people that clawed their way up out of their graves to vote for him. Apparently, they were an orderly bunch of zombies, as they seem to have done so in alphabetical order, in the infamous “Box 13” scandal. If the problem existed, you could prove it, but you can’t. Please tell me how you’re going to implement your solution without expanding the size and cost of government. And hampering someone’s ability to vote when they have a legitimate right to do so certainly is an intrusion. You appear not to to know what Big Government is. You appear to have no ethic either, but that’s no surprise. Just be straight about what you want and what the costs will be. And understand that, as Bricker has acknowledged, the big government, costly solution will not actually solve the problem. The problem that doesn’t exist anyway. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/86 "2012-06-13T00:39:01Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > All of you who so eagerly espouse the various Republican attempts to suppress the vote are disgraces. You do not DESERVE to live in a democracy. You deserve to be in the majority in a place like Syria, where a small minority controls the country by keeping a stranglehold on the levers of power. . . . Well, actually, that ain’t just Syria . . . ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/87 "2012-06-13T00:40:12Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > The problem does exist. And the solution is part of everyday life, not a “Big Government” intrusion of any kind. > > It’s been going on longer than this, but the first instance of voter fraud that I became aware of was LBJ getting elected to the Senate in 1948 by a bunch of dead people that clawed their way up out of their graves to vote for him. Apparently, they were an orderly bunch of zombies, as they seem to have done so in alphabetical order, in the infamous “Box 13” scandal. Different problem. See [post #77.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15161587&postcount=77) ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/88 "2012-06-13T00:56:16Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > If the problem existed, you could prove it, but you can’t. The problem _does_ exist: it’s that Republicans lose sometimes. More often than they like, which is more often than never. The solution is more Republican voters, and fewer Democratic voters. The fact that this bold defense of the democratic system—the very legitimacy of our beloved republic—just _ever so coincidentally_ happens to play right into that goal is nothing but happenstance. And it’s much more likely to succeed than the Veterans for Unborn Children Act (aka “Vinyl’s Law”), which would provide yours truly with a limitless slush fund for cocaine and hookers\* and which last I checked was stalled rather hopelessly in committee. - Only \*American \*hookers, it must be said, and those of our allies. We’re good with Hungary, right? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/89 "2012-06-13T01:01:58Z")
Bulgarian hookers bear a startling resemblance to John Goodman. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/90 "2012-06-13T02:02:46Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > And hampering someone’s ability to vote when they have a legitimate right to do so certainly is an intrusion. How can you verify that _legitimate right_ if they can’t even verify their identity? ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/91 "2012-06-13T02:21:23Z")
> [@Farmer\_Jane](#): > > Most people have IDs. For those that don’t, they can go get one. You can’t just “go get” an ID. This is a problem outside of voting, though. ID is becoming more and more necessary to just get by. Everyone should be able to get ID easily. You shouldn’t have to do a months-long dance with your state of birth just to get proof that you exist. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/92 "2012-06-13T02:53:51Z")
Is voting a privilege, something one must strive to accomplish? Or is it a right, that one should not be denied. And if it is aright, and not to be denied, but to equally offered to all citizens, then we ought not to place barriers in the path. And if we must place such barriers, we ought to make the effort to ensure that the effort expended to vote is also equally shared. But we don’t see any such efforts. We don’t see outreach programs to offer assistance to those with document problems. What we see are efforts to restrict voting, as in the case cited above, which directly impacts black voters who are used to voting on the Sunday previous to election day. What we see are efforts to make voter registration more difficult, or even criminal. (Does anyone yet have a plausible explanation for the “Sunday voting” crap? Are illegal aliens and felons more active on Sunday?) I submit that these efforts show a distinct lack of sincerity, pious bloviations notwithstanding. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/93 "2012-06-13T03:27:31Z")
forget it, something about china town ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/94 "2012-06-13T03:58:37Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > The problem does exist. And the solution is part of everyday life, not a “Big Government” intrusion of any kind. > > It’s been going on longer than this, but the first instance of voter fraud that I became aware of was LBJ getting elected to the Senate in 1948 by a bunch of dead people that clawed their way up out of their graves to vote for him. Apparently, they were an orderly bunch of zombies, as they seem to have done so in alphabetical order, in the infamous “Box 13” scandal. The problem does not exist and your “example” is not an actual example. Voter ID laws wouldn’t in any way prevent individuals from stuffing a ballot box with fraudulent votes as happened in this case. IOW, this example fails because there were zero individuals who registered to vote under the names of dead people or showed up at the polls to vote using their identities. Crooked election officials put the ballots in the ballot boxes. FAIL ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/95 "2012-06-13T04:06:34Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > All of you who so eagerly espouse the various Republican attempts to suppress the vote are disgraces. You do not DESERVE to live in a democracy. You deserve to be in the majority in a place like Syria, where a small minority controls the country by keeping a stranglehold on the levers of power. This is the government you so eagerly seek, you don’t give a SHIT about democracy, you just want YOUR people in power, by hook or by crook, and to HELL with America. To hell with the lot of YOU! Aren’t you the one who wants to limit campaign spending because you think people are too stupid for democracy to work if it is not? ---
**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:** [June 13, 2012, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/96 "2012-06-13T04:11:16Z")
> [@Absolute](#): > > Aren’t you the one who wants to limit campaign spending because you think people are too stupid for democracy to work if it is not? I think you might be too stupid to understand what he’s saying. But then again, I suppose I shouldn’t be talking to \*Absolute \*about _nuance_. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/97 "2012-06-13T04:16:36Z")
I just find it amusing that the people who are so vehemently defending democracy in one thread are claiming that citizens of the US are too stupid to be trusted with democracy in others. Regarding your other point - 😃 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/98 "2012-06-13T04:21:24Z")
Well, if pouring money into politics doesn’t work, how come rich guys keep doing it? They be stupid? ---
**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:** [June 13, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/99 "2012-06-13T04:21:45Z")
I don’t think that Americans are stupid if they fall victim to advertising and misinformation campaigns. Look at the swiftboaters. They were lies, but they worked. And a 10 to 1 advantage in money, garnered by one rich billionaire, isn’t something that makes society stronger. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943/100 "2012-06-13T04:23:53Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > You can’t just “go get” an ID. > > This is a problem outside of voting, though. ID is becoming more and more necessary to just get by. Everyone should be able to get ID easily. You shouldn’t have to do a months-long dance with your state of birth just to get proof that you exist. Most states that require ID also take other forms of ID (bills and such). If a law were created requiring ID, then people could get their pics on their registration cards. Look. Getting your first ID and joining the rest of us may be a hassle. But if the state gives you a long time to get it done, that’s your responsibility. Hey, I have to leave work early, pick up my kid, and swing go north of my house to vote on Election Day. It would be so much easier if I could vote by my work. But since I appreciate my right to vote, I do it even when it’s inconvenient. The fact that apparently 10 per cent of eligible voters don’t have photo ID is a concern. They’re living on the fringe. Can’t buy Sudafed. Can’t get on an airplane. Can’t open a bank account. Can’t cash a check. Do Democrats care in non major election years about this? But it should be said that the only time I’ve seen voter fraud is from the Secretaries of State in FL and OH. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-id-demanding-gop-vote-suppressors-part-1/624943.md?page=6)