I agree it could be done right. I have no problem with voter ID laws, so long as a good faith effort is made to get IDs in every hand. Not some long process that might take several days in line at the DMV, hours on the phone and so on.
By framing it as “present photo ID” you miss the core concept.
A fairly large group of mostly Democrats don’t currently have IDs. Getting an ID isn’t a simple process, especially for the poor. If it takes just five hours to do it, you are creating a strong incentive for that person to not vote. I would be similarly against some law that made GOP voters spend five hours on a task in order to vote. Couple that with closing Sunday voting, eliminating early voting, cutting voting hours in urban areas, and you’ve got a problem for democracy.
These laws are meant to keep political enemies from voting. They are a transparent attempt at swaying the election through manipulating the process, not convincing the electorate.
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.
Just a nitpick, I believe that it is only Ontario and Quebec that have photo ID health care cards.
Except of course we don’t see it as “the desire to make people present photo IDs”, we see it as “a desire to completely subvert the democratic process via an only-slightly-concealed shenanigans”.
And then you get to one of those “what’s worse… horrible cruelty to one single person, or subtle but long-lasting damage to the entire fabric of society” questions, which really doesn’t have an answer.
Don’t think its all that subtle, especially not to the targeted voter. Friend Bricker is fraught with concern about voter confidence, he wrings his hands and frets about the poor voter who cannot be sure that his vote is not negated by some fraudulent scoundrel.
A pity he hasn’t any to spare for the voter who sees the machinery of his legislature deliberately set out to sabotage his voting rights. That person’s voter confidence is of no appreciable consequence, he doesn’t count. How can he possibly have confidence in the system that deliberately and willfully puts needless blocks in his path to the exercise of his rights?
This isn’t about protecting the confidence of the voter, this is about protecting the confidence of the Republican voter.
I can imagine few more heartening visions than Republican standing to firmly reject such skulduggery, saying clearly and loudly no, fuck that shit, if we can’t win fair and square, we don’t deserve to.
On the other hand, crickets are nice, too. Far more likely, as well.
Huh, really? Well, who cares about the hicks?
Just kidding. Actually, I just checked Alberta’s rules and if you’re on the rolls, you don’t need ID. For now, at least. I’m hoping American-style politically convenient paranoia about voter fraud doesn’t spread here more than it already has.
Speaking of voter rolls, the existence of Elections Canada alone is a major step up - a nonpartisan government agency whose function is, well, elections. I check the little box on my tax return every year letting Canada Revenue share my info with Elections Canada. Do the Americans have an equivalent?
It seems the only time I hear about voter registration issues in the U.S. is ACORN-type nonsense or the recent voter-ID nonsense. It’s not about the cold rational business of making sure every citizen eligible to vote can vote and running elections with efficiency and thoroughness, but about fear that the wrong people will vote the wrong way.
I vaguely suspect it can also be about maintaining the confidence of the state- and local-level campaign worker. Their work, necessary though it is, can get pretty grinding, tedious and thankless, after all. Sometimes you can reward them with pictures of them standing beside the candidate or (if you get elected) a cushy government job, but to keep them motivated during the long slow election run-up, dangle this notion of “hey, looka-this! We can keep those people from voting! We have an edge! Your efforts aren’t futile - if we keep them out and you get more of us in, you can help us win!”
Truth be told, I’m not sure how much effect ID laws actually have. It may turn out to be even less than vagaries like random counting error or even the weather on election day. The idea annoys me, though, petty piss-ant partisan bullshit that it is.
As others have said, it’s not the asking for IDs that’s the problem, it’s the turning away of people who don’t have them. And whether they’re turned away at the polling place, or don’t go because they know they will be, anything that makes it harder for otherwise eligible people to vote is seen by some as an injustice.
Yes, but those things are random in their cause and in their effect[sup]*[/sup]. But this isn’t like that; it’s being done deliberately, and looks to affect one party’s voters more than the other.
- I’ve heard somewhere that rain on election day affects one party more than the other, but I don’t know the details or why it should be so. Maybe rain in the morning lowers turnout among those most like likely to vote in the morning, etc. In any case, no one is making it rain.
Well, let me put the comparison this way: if I could eliminate the death penalty in this country by also agreeing to eliminate photo ID requirements for voting, I wouldn’t hesitate an instant.
Does it have to be photo ID? If, for example, you could eliminate the death penalty but it meant supporting a governmental nonpartisan voter-registration effort with the clear and explicit goal of registering all eligible voters, such voters being listed at the polling stations and their names crossed off as they arrive and identify themselves with their names and addresses and possibly upon presenting ID if requested,which in a pinch could be a utility bill with the voter’s name and address on it…
Basically, how Canadian are you willing to get? 
That’s not the American way of democracy, you appear to have no mechanisms to hinder and harass the undesirable voter. Don’t you at least have less voting booths, locations and permitted hours in order to keep the riff-raff from swarming into your polling places?
Sure, people are born equal, but we can fix that. Can’t you?
Well, my experiences are fairly limited in scope, since I’ve lived in the same house for my entire adult life, so there haven’t been that many places where I’ve voted. Typically, I go to the basement of a Portuguese church a few blocks from my house. One time I was on an army course and voted by mail.
The major difference between Canadian and American elections that I can see is that we don’t have a fixed date for them (first Tuesday after the first Monday in November - wtf? - why not just first Tuesday? Is it important to not have an election on All Saints Day?) and the election is typically for a single level of government at a time, not an entire battery of federal, provincial and municipal posts plus whatever ballot initiatives or referenda that get tacked on. Now that I think about it, I guess Americans have much more voter input on state and local issues and office-holders. We don’t (or at least Quebec doesn’t) elect judges or crown attorneys or dog-catchers. There’s quite a bit more faith put into members of parliament and members of provincial legislatures to appoint these positions. Heck, for me voting has always been to X one box, not go through lengthy lists of offices and issues and vote on each. That alone makes the processing of Canadian voters much faster.
Is it better? Who the hell knows - it works reasonably well, and our elections are not year-long (now creeping up on two-year-plus-long) media frenzies like those of our neighbours.
A similar approach of calm sanity prevails here in Baja Canada, commonly referred to as “Minnesota”.
To save humans from being killed in my name by my government?
Gimme my tocque and backbacon, eh.
Uh-oh. Bricker’s one tocque over the line.
It’ll go well with your tu quoque.
Once you go maple, your government’s stable. Or something.
Anyway, sure, we have petty partisan bullshit up here, too. I don’t recall recent kerfuffles being cloaked in the flag, though, i.e. we have to do X to protect Canada, or confidence in Canada, or the Canadian way of life, or whatever.
I cheerfully admit the possibility that I’m not especially tuned into Canadian political news. American politics is like Mardi Gras and every Gay Pride Parade in history all rolled together, in comparative flamboyance and drama.
In any case, we now know for certain that if Bricker was given a chance to subvert the democratic legislative process, he would do it. Tsk, tsk…
It baffles me why state ID costs money in the USA and has onerous residency requirements, seems like a way to keep out the very poor and people on the fringes of society.
That’s the whole idea. The people you refer to are more apt to vote for a Democratic candidate.