Oh, that will start a fire storm. But if you are a rational person who’d like to look at what the law is in 2014, not 1964, perchance you’ll learn and grow reading this post today. I did a lot of research to prepare this entry and spent a lot of time pondering the issue. If you can set aside your prejudices for a bit we might all improve the state of voting in our republic.
Please follow me on Twitter, and “Like” the Facebook author page. Don’t forget to subscribe (the box is on the right side of the page) to be eligible for free e-books and other benefits!
First, I owe a debt of gratitude to Ballotpedia.org for their delightfully comprehensive set of links to all of the states and the associated voting laws. Out of the 50 states only three didn’t work. I couldn’t get to them on the web anyway, so it probably wasn’t the link at issue, but the state server. This is an excellent resource for researching the voting laws across the nation.
There are many schools of thought on the need, or the lack thereof, for voter identification. There is a long history of community voting in our nation, where the people at the polls recognized you and fraud was minimal. This had a darker side, that people who “shouldn’t” vote were denied the franchise even when constitutionally qualified. That evil side was enforced with things like poll taxes, voter testing, and a requirement to produce documents that didn’t exist in many cases. It was a clear case of one class of people suppressing another class in the vote. Since we don’t pull punches at this blog, it was largely used by white people to keep minority groups, specifically African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans from being able to vote. If those barriers were not enough, terror and intimidation were frequently employed to ice the cake.
Most, if not all, of that (on a De jure basis) came to a halt in the 1960s with the civil rights movement. The last poll tax fell in 1966 – 48 years ago. In the intervening years things have not always been hunky-dory in our nation’s treatment of legal voters. There have been pockets where intimidation still continued until fairly recent times. There has, however, been a steady progress toward eliminating this legal roadblock that once prevented some in our country from being fully enfranchised citizens. We are probably as close to perfect in that regard as we have ever been as a nation. It is my contention that it is time to quit looking back and start looking forward in an effort to legitimize and enfranchise the voters in a secure manner.
Voter suppression is the term most often cast about to describe an effort by one group to prevent another group from voting. I think it is a misused term. This topic is especially painful to African American descendants who grew up in the south. There really was voter suppression in that case, often violently enforced. The same applied to many tribes in the rest of the country where they simply weren’t allowed to vote in elections. That has changed. For the better. A lot.
We all need to recognize that bad things were done at some point in our history to minorities. The institutional nature of that injustice is no longer prevalent. Are there still prejudiced mutton heads in our country? Yup. Have been, worldwide, since the dawn of time. One thing will fix that, but I’m not sure when He’s coming back. Nobody is, so be ready.
Some states currently have a requirement for voter identification to be presented at the polls, or to obtain an absentee ballot. I endorse this solution to voter fraud. Is there enough voter fraud to make it worthwhile? Yes. I was a poll watcher a few cycles back and was saddened by the criminal nonsense I saw taking place. By merely questioning/challenging the vote of these suspect people most of them fled. Not argued, not discussed, turned on their heels and fled to avoid having to explain their charade. I didn’t confront them. The election judges were tipped off by the two poll watchers (one from each major party at the polls) and then the judges took it from there for action. In every case the person left quickly without another word. Each had suddenly remembered someplace they needed to be.
Every fraudulent vote eliminates one that was legally cast. Each time we allow anyone, on any side of any issue, to cheat at the polls it diminishes each of us and our voice in this republic.
After examining each of the states requirements for voter identification it became clear to me that an easy, workable solution was available to help tighten this whole mess up. Most states allow for a combination of documents to be used to vote at the polls without a photo identification card. These include bank statements, utility bills, mortgage receipts, college identity cards, and any state or federally issued document (passport, concealed handgun permit, etc.) to be used in a combination of two without a photo or one with a photo. The ballot is then largely secured. I think we can, as a nation, take it one step further, and apply this in every state for election validity.
Nobody would be paying a poll tax. There is an argument that some make that any document you have to produce, or any work you have to do to obtain an identification card, is a poll tax in some way. That’s not a valid point in 2014. You can’t do anything, including getting on a Greyhound bus, without a photo identity card in this world today. I think the franchise of voting should be worth more than getting a bus ticket to Omaha. Not financially, but in terms of making sure you have the documents required to vote in time to vote. Each of the states that had a requirement to produce an identification card at the polls had an option available for a free card for the indigent, or those who did not have another form of state identification. (Except North Dakota – I couldn’t find the scoop on how to get a state identification card there and finally gave up.)
No more just showing up at the polls and voting without any identification, except your word as a scholar and nice person. If that is to be allowed, then let it be a provisional ballot that would require vetting before the vote is certified. Thus, if you lose your wallet on election day, you can cast your ballot and just show up at the county clerk’s office within 24 hours with the documents needed to prove who you are (utility bill, bank statement, student id, etc.) and the vote is then certified.
This would not present a roadblock to minority voting. The argument that the shadows of the past will darken the landscape and scare older voters into not voting any more is a straw man at best. The landscape has changed since the 1966 time frame. We are a better nation. But we are a nation facing voter fraud that is changing the results of elections. I don’t think that identification benefits one political persuasion more than any other, but it is time to change our ways and come into a modern era. No longer does the election judge know everyone in their area. Our agrarian past is no longer a valid basis for identification of legitimate voters.
If we all honestly and peacefully discuss ways to implement this, and avoid name-calling and emotional responses, we can find a way to make our elections honorable and honest again. I hope and pray that we, as a people, have come far enough to talk to each other about this in a rational manner.
Thank you for your time and attention.
.
