Proposed ID policy threatens voter participation

Do you have a driver’s license or another form of photo identification? If not, you may be in for a rude awakening next election.

North Carolina state representatives have proposed changes to House Bill 351 that would require all those voting in person to present a government-issued photo ID or other form of photo identification.

The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law issued a national survey in 2006 which revealed that that 18 percent of U.S. citizens over the age of 65, 25 percent of African Americans, 15 percent of those making below $35,000 per year and 18 percent of voters aged 18-24 do not have valid photo identification.

This policy is being proposed in order to prevent instances of voter fraud, yet voter fraud in reality is not a pressing issue. Between 2002 and 2005, only 24 people were convicted of voter fraud. Few of these instances would have been prevented by photo ID laws. In a time when we are laying off thousands of teachers, cutting funding to public services and raising taxes, we should not be spending millions of taxpayers’ money to solve a problem that barely exists.

If the voter ID policy passes, it will make it harder for thousands of our fellow North Carolinians to vote at the polls in the next election. It is this threat to democracy that calls us to do what we can to ensure that everyone has a voice and everyone is given equal opportunity to participate.

Contact Gov. Bev Perdue at governor.office@nc.gov. Tell her that we should be increasing voter participation rather than making it harder, and to veto House Bill 351.

— Chloe Stuber
Swannanoa

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26 thoughts on “Proposed ID policy threatens voter participation

  1. bill smith

    who doesnt have some form of foto id? even if you dont have a license, you need a state id for several reasons.

  2. travelah

    If you have to show an ID to buy beer and cigarettes, would it not seem just as reasonable to show an ID demonstrating that you actually are who you claim to be when you vote? Who are the people who do not have an ID?

  3. travelah

    I should have read the article more closely and I would have seen the misleading and fraudulent claim of those who do not have IDs. What prevents these people from getting an ID?

  4. travelah

    How I wish there was an edit function ….

    If somebody is inclined to not get an ID of some sort, I suspect it is highly likely they also are not civic minded and inclined to vote. What is the real reason liberals object to this?

  5. Betty

    How hard is it for MoveOn.org and others to take people to get an ID? Not any harder than it is to get them to the polls and tell them who to vote for.

  6. normanplombe

    to Bill Smith–the larger and more pertinent question is Why, Why, WHY!!!!? do we continue to consider a silly plastic card PROOF of ‘identification?’ one can buy ID card machines on eBay! really…check it out….we obviously need implanted computer chips.

  7. Implanted computer chips can only go so far, though, as they would serve merely as methods of identification and not true agents of thought control.

    What we need is some form of implant that would move the programs of the Gangster Computer God out from the need of Frankenstein enforcers and directly into the Brainflow Patterns of these easily deceived people who still believe that there is a free choice in voting between two amorphous sides of the same corporatist coin.

    Still, though, we have to keep that coin coming up “tails” or the Brothers on the Heads side will continue to slow down our descent into a bland, entropic culture of regurgitated mass media and entertainment options. They might even reverse some of the hard work that has been going on over the last 150 years, and in earnest for the last 40.

    So, with a Correct Thought Chip Implant, we could rest assured that no level of economic upheaval could cause the masses to deviate from the course set for them by the Gangster Computer God and its controllers from the Upper Ten Percent (Ninety Percent of them are actually Controlled by the remaining Super Masters, The Ten of Ten).

    Besides, who needs identification when we could have thought control? Especially the kind that functions to hide the truth from people? A choice between two of the same evil is no choice at all.

    They’ve already won and we’re already dead.

  8. TallPaul

    “** Ban Sunday or “Souls to the Polls” voting in North Carolina
    ** Eliminate early voter registration for 16-17 year olds.
    ** Limit the early voting period to 7-9 days.
    ** Limit the available day time and hours of early voting locations.

    We have voting on Sunday?
    Why do we need to register people a year or two before they are old enough to vote?
    Why is 7 – 9 days not enough?

    Nothing to see here.

  9. cwaster

    Yet another way Republicans (in my opinion) can reduce the voting power of poor people, the elderly, the disabled, and minorities. Way to go!

  10. Johnny

    Say you are a powerful Republican operative and well-schooled in the demographics of the electorate and voting trends. That being the case then you literally don’t want people to vote. The more people that vote the worse it is for your party. Plain and simple. This is obvious, widely known, and has been the case for decades.

    So, knowing that low voter turn-out helps, you find various ways in various states to make it just a wee bit harder to vote. There’s a range of tactics — generally foisted upon the people as being in the best interest for whatever reason sounds good at the time.

  11. Betty

    Wow, Gordon, I didn’t know you and your Screw Who gang went in for conspiracy theories. Paranoid much?

  12. Asheville Dweller

    referencing a A Blog for sources not just any blog but yours, very comical.

  13. Ashevegasjoe

    I think there needs to be an IQ test to vote, that would eliminate Trump and Palin from the winning an election

  14. travelah

    I think there needs to be an IQ test to vote, that would eliminate Trump and Palin from the winning an election

    If there was a test for ignorance, that comment would exclude its author.

  15. Hugh Akston

    Only property owners should be allowed to vote. Assuming they have proper identification.

  16. Mick Ballantine

    “I think there needs to be an IQ test to vote…”
    That would eliminate Joe Biden from the ticket. Besides, Obama should be running with a real soul mate. Rev Jeramiah Wright.

    Kidding aside, proof of who you are, to ensure you are eligible to vote in the first place, is a very logical idea that should’ve been made law a long time ago.

  17. bill smith

    [i]Only property owners should be allowed to vote. Assuming they have proper identification. [/i]

    White male ones only.

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