democrats-lie-about-lying-about-voter-id

SSG Robert Perrotto As you didn’t read the article:

“ In his wallet, Anthony Settles carries an expired Texas identification card, his Social Security card and an old student ID from the University of Houston, where he studied math and physics decades ago. What he does not have is the one thing that he needs to vote this presidential election: a current Texas photo ID.

For Settles to get one of those, his name has to match his birth certificate — and it doesn’t. In 1964, when he was 14, his mother married and changed his last name. After Texas passed a new voter-ID law, officials told Settles he had to show them his name-change certificate from 1964 to qualify for a new identification card to vote.

So with the help of several lawyers, Settles tried to find it, searching records in courthouses in the D.C. area, where he grew up. But they could not find it. To obtain a new document changing his name to the one he has used for 51 years, Settles has to go to court, a process that would cost him more than $250 — more than he is willing to pay.l

SSG Robert Perrotto

“ Hargie Randall, 72, was born in his family’s home in Huntsville, Tex., and has lived in the state his entire life. Randall, now living in Houston’s low-income Fifth Ward neighborhood, has several health problems and such poor eyesight that he is legally blind. He can’t drive and has to ask others for rides.

After Texas implemented its new law, Randall went to the Department of Public Safety (the Texas agency that handles driver’s licenses and identification cards) three times to try to get a photo ID to vote. Each time Randall was told he needed different items. First, he was told he needed three forms of identification. He came back and brought his Medicaid card, bills and a current voter registration card from voting in past elections.

“I thought that because I was on record for voting, I could vote again,” Randall said.

But he was told he still needed more documentation, such as a certified copy of his birth certificate.

Records of births before 1950, such as Randall’s, are not on a central computer and are located only in the county clerk’s office where the person was born.

For Randall, that meant an hour-long drive to Huntsville, where his lawyers found a copy of his birth certificate.

But that wasn’t enough. With his birth certificate in hand, Randall went to the DPS office in Houston with all the necessary documents. But, DPS officials still would not issue him a photo ID because of a clerical mistake on his birth certificate. One letter was off in his last name — “Randell” instead of “Randall” — so his last name was spelled slightly different than on all his other documents.

Kamin, the lawyer, asked the DPS official if they could pull up Randall’s prior driver’s-license information, as he once had a state-issued ID. The official told her that the state doesn’t keep records of prior identification after five years, and there was nothing they could do to pull up that information.

Kamin was finally able to prove to a DPS supervisor that there was a clerical error and was able to verify Randall’s identity by showing other documents.

But Myrtle Delahuerta, 85, who lives across town from Randall, has tried unsuccessfully for two years to get her ID. She has the same problem of her birth certificate not matching her pile of other legal documents that she carts from one government office to the next. The disabled woman, who has difficulty walking, is applying to have her name legally changed, a process that will cost her more than $300 and has required a background check and several trips to government offices.“

SPC (Join to see) - I lived in texas, A birth certificate, and two utility bills in your name showing proof of address, and a tax form - he does pay taxes correct? - is all that is required for a state issued ID card.

SSG Robert Perrotto His name doesn’t match his birth certificate. The stories copied are people who had to hire attorneys to get this sorted out. I even copied the relevant part...I mean, if I’m going to quote the relevant parts and you aren’t going to read it, then why bother?

My entire point here is that nobody should be denied the right to vote. And a government issued ID to everyone would solve the problem.

SPC (Join to see) - And I am 100% for that. But what no one can tell me is WHO THE HELL DOES NOT HAVE ID? WHO IS DISENFRANCHISED? If they have tapped into any state/fed program - they have ID. If they buy beer - they have ID.

I've lived in the inner city, the city, the suburbs, the country, west coast, east coast mid west and I have yet to meet a single person who does not have ID. And with the advent of air travel requirements most people have "Real IDs". A government approved ID across boundaries.

I want to know - specifically - who is being disenfranchised?!

SSgt (Join to see) - I updated your graphic to list only those items specifically relevant to the issue of participating in the democratic process.

SGM Erik Marquez - The issue is more subtle than explicit requirements laid out in the proposed (and implemented) legislation in recent memory. A lot of times it manifests itself by what is and isn't accepted. For instance, why does Texas accept a Texas handgun licenses issued by DPS, but they don't accept a Student ID issued by a State-funded university? Maybe it's because they didn't want to suppress gun owners (who vote GOP) but do want to suppress college-age voters (who vote Democratic). It could also be related to cost of the underlying documentation needed to get a free ID. If I have to spend money to get a copy of a birth certificate (to get the free voter ID), that's an expense not explicitly required in the legislation (and becomes a poll tax). Now, the cost of a birth certificate might be immaterial to the two of us, but it might not be immaterial to many people at much lower income thresholds. Plus, you have restrictions put in place on the locations where people could get proper identification. For instance, Alabama closed over 30 driver’s license offices that were one of the primary locations where people from Alabama could get a photo identification. And, most of those locations were in places where black citizens made up a higher proportion of the population. And, only AFTER a Federal investigation did the State of Alabama choose to finally reopen some of those offices. Attempts to manipulate the electorate are indeed occurring, and voter ID laws are a primary means of doing so. Until the GOP comes up with a legitimate proposal that doesn't tilt the playing field, I will never support these efforts. I grew up in the Deep South and have seen it happen over and over again, throughout my life. And, many of the people implementing those laws say their true intentions in private, but never in public. I've seen it first-hand. So, I'm not against requiring voter identification, but I am against the way voter identification is currently being used to shave off opposition voters from the electorate. Lastly, if someone wants to throw out the "voter fraud" argument (which does have some merit) to justify the ID requirement, I don't buy it. The scale just isn't there to justify it, in my opinion. Plus, I think it's a bigger sin to deny a legitimate voter by trying to exclude an illegitimate voter. Those should be mutually exclusive, but they're not.

SSgt (Join to see) -

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

"A federal court in Texas found that 608,470 registered voters don’t have the forms of identification that the state now requires for voting. For example, residents can vote with their concealed-carry handgun licenses but not their state-issued student university IDs.

Across the country, about 11 percent of Americans do not have government-issued photo identification cards, such as a driver’s license or a passport, according to Wendy Weiser of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law."

"In 2012, a federal court in Washington concluded that the burden of obtaining a state voter-ID certificate would weigh disproportionately on minorities living in poverty, with many having to travel as much as 200 to 250 miles round trip."

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Read the article. It really does seem to me that mandating ID, without also helping people get ID, is just setting some people up for failure. If Voter ID is required, then it should be provided by the government, free of charge. Otherwise, it's not something that I can get behind.