Study finds costs associated with voter IDs

[alp227]

Last edited Wed Jul 18, 2012, 03:54 AM - Edit history (4)

Source: Washington Post

New laws in 10 states requiring voters to show IDs could present serious challenges to voters without financial resources and transportation, according to a report released Wednesday.

The study by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, which opposes the new laws, found several obstacles that could keep voters from being able to cast ballots, including limited access to offices that issue the IDs required under the new measures.

“The advocates of these laws kept saying we’re going to provide these IDs for free and that’s going to eliminate all of the problems,” said Keesha Gaskins, co-author of the report. “We found the ability to get documents isn’t that simple. The documents are costly for many, many voters and there are serious transportation barriers for many voters. We just found really significant problems.”

(...)

In some areas, the offices that issue IDs maintain limited business hours. Rural areas in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas are served by part-time ID offices. And in an extreme example, the researchers found the office in Sauk City, Wis., is open only on the fifth Wednesday of any month. That would limit the office to being open just four days this year.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/study-finds-costs-associated-with-voter-ids/2012/07/17/gJQAlrcXsW_story.html

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If you have right wing friends repeating the tired old Heritage Foundation/Fox News/talk radio line "the voter ID laws are here to protect the integrity of votes, and why don't you just get an ID", point out how the Republican-run states have strategically and knowingly made it harder to get IDs in the first place (such as the Sauk City office) and include this Paul Weyrich speech:

Gaskins debated Heritage's Hans von Spakovsky ( also quoted in article) on PBS back in December on the issue:

Thom Hartmann also debated HVS:

And Sen. Al Franken challenged HVS's scholarship about voter ID in a hearing:

[Cal Carpenter]

1. You mean the ID fairy doesn't just hand deliver them in a shower of sparkles?

The cost could be prohibitive? Shocking news. Glad someone took the time to study this.

[freshwest]

2. Forgot your sarcasm smilie.

[sakabatou]

3. Yep, it's a poll tax

[flamingdem]

4. Wonder if that gives DOJ room to block this nt

[99th_Monkey]

6. I don't see why it wouldn't.

DOJ's already been challenging these poll taxes I believe.
In a sane world, this will totally add much needed fuel to
their efforts, if they are serious about putting a stop to
this crap. That is the question. It will take some doing,
some balls, and some personal risks for those who work
on stopping this shit in it's tracks, because those pushing
it don't fuck around. They like to kill or somehow destroy
people over these kinds of pivotal issues.

What gets my blood boiling is these asshole GOP wing-nuts
are desperate to "have it both ways" ... not only do their
Republican corporate friends OWN the fucking machines
that most Americans use to "vote" ... then they have the
unMITTigated gall -- under the banner of "stopping voter
fraud" no less -- to force 90 year olds, the very poor, the
ill-informed, the people who hardly still give a shit anymore
because they KNOW the game is rigged, voters who are
too busy scrambling to not become homeless, et. al. TO
SHELL OUT HARD EARNED SCARCE DOLLARS JUST TO
FUCKING VOTE.

This is beyond unconscionable, it is outright in-our-face EVIL.

[Sherman A1]

9. Precisely

and as such I believe to be illegal. I hope DOJ finds it as such as well.

[Downwinder]

5. I live within walking distance of my polling location and the voting registrar's office.

The location to obtain a picture ID is not within walking distance, ln fact it is in another town. The transportation costs to and from getting a picture ID world take two days out of my monthly food budget or 7% of my monthly income after medical expenses.

[alp227]

8. Exactly. Your governor must be following the Weyrich strategy.

I edited my OP to include Paul Weyrich's "Goo Goo Syndrome" speech.

[progressoid]

7. No shit?

[EpsilonZer0]

10. theres always going to be costs but we need it

I lived in a country briefly where every person had a national picture ID card and they use an ID # on that card for everything. I actually had to use that # to login to public wifi at starbucks.

Foreigners were also urged to get a temporary ID card if they intended to stay longer than 14 days.

Despite the costs though, everybody had one. Sure when they implimented the system in the 90s there were some growing pains, but almost 20 years later the ID card system is just a part of life and isnt anymore difficult to get than renewing a drivers license.

Everybody that is against a national ID card I think is short sighted and only looking at it within the frame of the coming election.

[Gormy Cuss]

11. Why do "we need it?"

I can understand why it would be advantageous for Big Brother advocates but why do we need a national ID? What benefit do we as individual citizens obtain from enabling greater surveillance in our society?

[Igel]

12. The cost of the birth certificate and transportation remains.

But most of those who would have trouble getting their birth certificates, it's been said fairly often, are elderly, in their late 60s and older.

In most states elderly who are homebound vote absentee. The inconvenience may still be there. Most of the elderly who would need the ID wouldn't be working, so the hours of operation of the offices wouldn't be a hardship.

Unless the mentioning of the elderly in such a prominent light was just an exaggeration to win over hearts. Then it's just manipulation.