# Voter idea? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 2, 2020, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040 "2020-05-02T23:19:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Loggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Loggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loggins)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2020, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/1 "2020-05-02T23:19:11Z")
How is it that voter ID is such a big issue in usa? Most countries i know, you have to ID yourself to get to vote… ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/2 "2020-05-03T00:11:30Z")
> [@Loggins](#): > > How is it that voter ID is such a big issue in usa? Most countries i know, you have to ID yourself to get to vote… [What a novel thought!](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=655025) ---
**Author:** ![Calavera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calavera/32/70_2.png) [@Calavera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calavera)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/3 "2020-05-03T01:41:30Z")
It boils down to the fact that some people are too lazy or apathetic to get ID. People on the SDMB will try to frame it as a racist issue but it just boils down to people not making an effort to get ID, (which is easily available to all eligible voters.) ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/4 "2020-05-03T01:46:52Z")
Voter fraud is very very rare here. Solution in search of a problem. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/5 "2020-05-03T01:53:03Z")
> [@Calavera](#): > > It boils down to the fact that some people are too lazy or apathetic to get ID. People on the SDMB will try to frame it as a racist issue but it just boils down to people not making an effort to get ID, (which is easily available to all eligible voters.) This is false. Just one cite of many: > **[Getting a photo ID so you can vote is easy. Unless you’re poor, black, Latino...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/getting-a-photo-id-so-you-can-vote-is-easy-unless-youre-poor-black-latino-or-elderly/2016/05/23/8d5474ec-20f0-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html)** > > Eleven states are requiring a photo ID to vote in a presidential election for the first time. Please retract your statement. Other countries don’t make voters jump through tons of hoops, close down DMVs in poor areas to make it harder to get a license, etc. Anyway, are we really going to have another thread on this topic? ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/6 "2020-05-03T01:54:56Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Solution in search of a problem. Oh…I think we know what the problem is for some people: Making voting too easy disadvantages Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/7 "2020-05-03T01:57:13Z")
> [@Calavera](#): > > It boils down to the fact that some people are too lazy or apathetic to get ID. People on the SDMB will try to frame it as a racist issue but it just boils down to people not making an effort to get ID, (which is easily available to all eligible voters.) Yeah, like poll taxes, literacy tests and other race based voter suppression tactics were never employed by right wing scum before, dumb fuck. Read your history. Sound it out if you have to. Maybe ask someone with a functioning brain to help you. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/8 "2020-05-03T02:10:04Z")
> [@Loggins](#): > > How is it that voter ID is such a big issue in usa? Most countries i know, you have to ID yourself to get to vote… What country do you come from? Approximately 100% of Americans who are “opposed to voter ID” would be happy to support voter ID, if such ID were always readily available. Instead voter ID laws are designed to enfranchise likely R voter, but to disenfranchise likely D voters. The Rs make no secret of this — many quotes can be found that literally say as much. As just one example, IIRC in Texas gun permits can be used as voter ID, but university student IDs cannot be. Both documents have photographs; both are issued by government entities; but gun owners tend to vote R while students tend to vote D. > [@Calavera](#): > > It boils down to the fact that some people are too lazy or apathetic to get ID. People on the SDMB will try to frame it as a racist issue but it just boils down to people not making an effort to get ID, (which is easily available to all eligible voters.) Wrong, wrong, and wrong again. Are you always this stupid, or just when you’re prattling the Hannity-Jones party line on topics you know nothing about? One 75-year old woman who’d been voting for 50 years is no longer able to vote, despite spending much effort and money to obtain birth certificates, etc. There is a slight spelling deviation between her birth certificate and the name she’s been using all her life. Government officials have the authority to overlook such minor deviations … but this is a Black woman in a state run by the Reds. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/9 "2020-05-03T04:23:38Z")
> [@Loggins](#): > > How is it that voter ID is such a big issue in usa? Most countries i know, you have to ID yourself to get to vote… As others have noted, most people believe that voter ID procedures will be set up in order to create obstacles to people voting. The politicians who control the program can use selective enforcement to make it easy for their supporters to get acceptable IDs and be able to vote while making it as difficult as possible for the supporters of their opponents to get the paperwork necessary to vote. There is ample evidence to believe these concerns are justified. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/10 "2020-05-03T05:17:20Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > Yeah, like poll taxes, literacy tests and other race based voter suppression tactics were never employed by right wing scum before, dumb fuck. Read your history. Sound it out if you have to. Maybe ask someone with a functioning brain to help you. Psst. Inconvenient truth time. “poll taxes, literacy tests and other race based voter suppression tactics” were a Democrat thing. [Encyclopedia Britannica: Poll tax](https://www.britannica.com/topic/poll-tax) > [@](#): > > Once the Populists had been defeated, the Democrats amended their state constitutions or drafted new ones to include various disfranchising devices. ---
**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:** [May 3, 2020, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/11 "2020-05-03T05:29:26Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Psst. Inconvenient truth time. > > “poll taxes, literacy tests and other race based voter suppression tactics” were a Democrat thing. > > [Encyclopedia Britannica: Poll tax](https://www.britannica.com/topic/poll-tax) This reminds me of how, earlier this year, a Republican legislator in Virginia tried to checkmate the Democrats by proposing that a statue of white supremacist Democratic governor Harry Byrd be removed. Because obviously, they would never ever feel shame at something in their own party’s past. Then, because he’s actually a supporter of white supremacist propaganda, he had to hurriedly kill the bill when it was actually very well received by the very Democrats who he was trying to shame. In other words, psst, we already know that Democrats were the right-wing scum in certain times and places. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/12 "2020-05-03T05:51:09Z")
Aww, this almost makes me miss Bricker . . . almost. CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/13 "2020-05-03T06:54:23Z")
The problem is that the Americans who support voter ID are exactly the same people who oppose the standard, mandatory, easy-to-issue government ID cards that most civilized countries have. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/14 "2020-05-03T07:44:37Z")
> [@Calavera](#): > > It boils down to the fact that some people are too lazy or apathetic to get ID. People on the SDMB will try to frame it as a racist issue but it just boils down to people not making an effort to get ID, (which is easily available to all eligible voters.) “Dispareate Impact” is an actual thing, you fucking idiot. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/15 "2020-05-03T07:55:24Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Psst. Inconvenient truth time. > > “poll taxes, literacy tests and other race based voter suppression tactics” were a Democrat thing. > > [Encyclopedia Britannica: Poll tax](https://www.britannica.com/topic/poll-tax) Here’s a book for you to read, if you’re brave enough: [_The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968_, by Kari Frederickson](https://uncpress.org/book/9780807849101/the-dixiecrat-revolt-and-the-end-of-the-solid-south-1932-1968/) I doubt you will, though. You seem like a coward, too frightened to face facts. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/16 "2020-05-03T08:37:09Z")
For what it’s worth, I don’t think it’s an inherently racist issue. It’s a rig-elections-for-political-power issue that just happens to line up nicely with racism. I daresay that doesn’t really make it better. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/17 "2020-05-03T11:14:00Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Psst. Inconvenient truth time. > > “poll taxes, literacy tests and other race based voter suppression tactics” were a Democrat thing. > > [Encyclopedia Britannica: Poll tax](https://www.britannica.com/topic/poll-tax) Massive “both sides do it” fail. Don’t try again next time. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/18 "2020-05-03T11:26:58Z")
> [@Loggins](#): > > How is it that voter ID is such a big issue in usa? Most countries i know, you have to ID yourself to get to vote… Where I live, there is a more sensible approach you need an ID to _register_ to vote. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/19 "2020-05-03T11:29:48Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > The problem is that the Americans who support voter ID are exactly the same people who oppose the standard, mandatory, easy-to-issue government ID cards that most civilized countries have. Exactly. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040/20 "2020-05-03T11:39:27Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Psst. Inconvenient truth time. > > “poll taxes, literacy tests and other race based voter suppression tactics” were a Democrat thing. > > [Encyclopedia Britannica: Poll tax](https://www.britannica.com/topic/poll-tax) Weren’t you that medal guy? Well, here’s your fucking medal for repeating the tired fact that Southern Democrats used to be the home of racists. Did you know that the explicitly white-supremacist Dixiecrat party was an offshoot of the Democrats? I know, it blows your mind. I mean, really, what the fuck was the point of your post? Did you know that Republicans freed the slaves, and yet are now the home of white supremacists? Whoa. Mind blown. Did you know that Southern blacks used to vote for Republicans and now vote overwhelming for Democrats? Is that because the Dems used to promote poll taxes? Anyway, enjoy your medal. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voter-idea/853040.md?page=2)