So when the Constitution says “The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election… shall not be denied”, what they’re actually saying is that there isn’t a right to vote?
And Congress will be voting on the Constitutional amendment codifying that assumption when, exactly?
You have a Constitutional right to vote. You do not have a Constitutional right to smoke.
They don’t need to. Voting can be, and is, regulated, as it should be.
Really? Then how come your Cuban neighbor can’t vote if it’s a right. He has freedom of religion, he has freedom of speech, he has freedom of assembly, you need a warrant to search his home, he has a right to a fair trial by jury of his peers, he has the right not to be discriminated against by the government. So why can’t he vote?
Not about “preventing”. Which is what I said, in the post that you quoted. Apparently, without reading?
I had no idea Ted Cruz wasn’t allowed to vote.
Cute. But the reason is that voting is a benefit conferred by citizenship, and it is subject to other qualifications. The only sense in which it is a right is that governments cannot discriminate in their regulations. That’s why poll taxes and literacy tests are illegal. Those actually create barriers. An ID requirement does not except for the tiniest fraction of voters, and every one of them can get an ID cheaply, or even free, depending on the state, with documents they are already required to have in their possession. Since they are required to get health insurance, now everyone has them. By passing ACA, you made having “papers” the law of the land. Congratulations. So there’s no longer any excuse.
And which “other qualifications” does the Constitution establish that allow you to call poll taxes under another name legal?
Any fraction larger than 0 is unacceptable.
Meaning they have to pay the poll tax if they want to vote.
What documents are US citizens “required to have in their possession”?
The individual mandate doesn’t apply to people living below the poverty line - you know, the exact same “tiniest fraction” who can’t afford to pay your poll tax.
Nitpick: be careful, it was not exclusively GOP. Rhode Island is a stalwart democratic state, and the voter ID laws were proposed by a Democratic Secretary of State, passed by the Democratic General Assembly and signed by the then Independent Governor Chafee (who soon after joined the Democratic Party).
I live here, and watched this with interest - if memory serves me correctly, RI had a total of 12 GOP members to 101 Dems in the General Assembly at the time.
The Constitution establishes little on voting other than that you can’t discriminate based on race or sex. What’s allowed by law is anything with a rational basis that does not have a discriminatory effect. Which is why some voter ID laws are upheld and others are not. A system that required no verification of identity at any part of the process would be nonsensical.
Then you basically need to just automatically log votes without people actually having to make the effort to so much as raise their hands. Because any requirement, even mail-in, imposes a small obstacle. Takes something to write with, for starters. It’s enough of an “obstacle” that more than half of Coloradans declined to vote in 2014.
The solution to that is to make acquiring all required documents for carrying on with a basic life free.
For starters, your proof of health insurance.
They have to prove that too. You either prove insurance coverage, or you prove poverty. The government doesn’t just take your word for in either case.
Those were the findings of the district court judge in Frank v. Walker.
The judge’s ruling is here:
Huh. Ok, I stand corrected. Ignorance fought. Thank you.
Is this the only counter-example?
Most states have some kind of voter ID law, blue and red alike. But you are correct that except for RI, toughening up these laws has only been done by Republicans.
Or age provided that you’re over eighteen, or for reason other than participation in rebellion, or for failure to pay a poll tax or any other tax.
Anything that makes it easier to vote is fine by me. Are you opposed to making voting easier?
What documents are “required for carrying on with a basic life”, and what steps have Republicans taken to make acquiring them easier?
What law requires all US citizens to possess proof of health insurance? I’ll give you a hint; it’s not the ACA, because the ACA contains no such requirement.
Ah, good cite.
Although you can discriminate based on age, sort of. A state can require a person to be mentally competent, and that affects aged voters most.
I’m not opposed to it, so much as I laugh at Democrats who think that their problem is the government’s problem. I’m only actually opposed when it creates holes in the system to be exploited. For example, same day registration has been found by investigators to be a fraud magnet:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/29543514.html
Democrats’ response to Milwaukee police finding fraud was that they didn’t feel the police should be investigating voter fraud. All righty then.
Republicans aren’t the ones focused on voting and literally nothing else. Democrats have traditionally had zero sympathy for citizens trying to navigate the federal bureaucracy.
You’re right on the letter of the law, wrong in spirit. Have you done your taxes yet?
I think it unlikely that the district court judge did his own, independent statistical analysis. I will certainly accept that if you show that it is so. Outside of that, s/he is accepting someone else’s numbers as Gospel. My question is: who’s?
If not enough people are voting when they DON’T have to show ID, why do you think more people will vote if you give them a free ID?
Well, not here…
I’ll say. They identified a whopping sixteen votes cast by non-residents!
Clearly, this is a problem that can only be solved by disfranchising tens of thousands.
Here is your statement:
**This is false. You are wrong. It is factually incorrect. **
You need an SSN, yes. The Social Security Card is free. Proof of identity can be established by the following:
Just to repeat - you are wrong.
And are the documents required to get a Social Security card also free?