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Originally Posted by Robbie
kane, in your mother's case...would she be going to the polls to vote on election day? It's sounds as if she isn't able to get around much.
That's the kind of example I was talking about...how many people percentage-wise of legal adult age AND of sound mind and body (physically able and willing to leave a nursing home to go stand in line to vote) are there WITHOUT any kind of ID?
And again...as far as "studies" showing that voter fraud is almost non-existent...how would a "study" be able to ascertain that? That's like saying there was no investor fraud...UNTIL they caught Bernie Madoff and realized he had been doing it all along.
And it's a very, very famous fact that in the city of Chicago...the Democrat Party machine was well known for having dead people vote in droves to keep Mayor Daley in power for decades.
And that was just ONE political machine in ONE city.
I'm not trying to say that voter fraud is running rampant, but since a person has to show ID for everything in life...shouldn't they be required to show ID for their most important civic duty as a citizen?
Take the politics out of it for a second...don't YOU think that a person should show their ID to vote?
And if there is some mitigating circumstance, as in the case of your mom...then that should be taken into account.
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In Oregon we vote by mail so a voter ID law wouldn't really work, because the ballot is mailed to you and you mail it back or drop it at a voter box. So she has and will vote. If she had to go to a poll she might still go. She has a wheelchair now so she can get around a little better and if not she would do an absentee ballot.
As for others, I personally can't see how the average, typical person can survive without an ID. As you have pointed out, it is needed for everything these days especially with ID theft such a big problem, but clearly there are a lot of people without. Now that I think about it my soon to be 21 year old nephew doesn't have a valid photo ID. He has been arrested a handful times and always has extra troubles because he has no ID.
As for voter fraud. I guess we can't really know the exact number of fraudulent votes cast. I am basing my opinion on those actually charged with it. According to
this ABC news article between 2002-2005 there were 197 million votes cast for federal candidates and only 40 people indicted on actual voter fraud. The state of Texas has convicted 51 people of voter fraud in the last 10 years.
I'm sure there are more that do it and get away with it, but to me it seems like a pretty small problem. I would rather they focus their efforts on curbing the fraud that is committed by the people that run the elections in an effort to swing elections one way or the other. Not to mention how many of the voter ID laws also include reducing the number of days people can vote and how they can vote. Most of them are simply voter suppression laws.