We have to prove citizenship to vote now?

[Skidmore]

I believe NPR had an item on this morning (I was just getting into the car as this item was close to ending) about some legislation that just passed today? regarding this. Does anyone know about this? Which house of the Congress? Is it effective this election or the next? And how the hell do you prove citizenship when any document can be faked?

[TAPat]

1. Please see here --->

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2186313&mesg_id=2186361

[Lone_Star_Dem]

2. 2008. I'm thinking this will really boost voter turnout!

:sarcasm:

[napi21]

3. I think it passed the House yesterday, and not goes to the Senate.

I hear what you're saying, but let me tell you how it owrked for me. I was born in Pa. in 1943. I've been a registered voter since I was 21 (that was the min age at the time), and other than afew hour trip to Canada 30 years ago, aand a few hour trip across the border to Nuevo Laredo, Mx. about 10 years ago, have never been out of the Country!

When we moved to Ga. in 2000, I went to get my DL, and they asked for a copy of my Birth Certificate. I showed THE ORIGINAL to them, and they said "that's no good"! WHAT!!! It's the original cert, and I've been using it for 57 years! The clerk said, sorry, go home and request a NEW BC from Pa. that has the State Seal empossed on it. Nothing less is acceptable!

So I spentthe $15 or something like that, and in about 10 days, I received my "NEW" BC with the seal. I then made a separate trip to the DMV andfinally all was well. I registered to vote at the same time!

I don't know how many other States already do this, butif that's a high #, are we fightinga battle that doesn't need to be fought?

[KansDem]

4. I posted this yesterday about HR 4844, the Ehlers/Hyde bill.

REVISED MEDICAID DOCUMENTATION REQUIREMENT JEOPARDIZES COVERAGE FOR 1 TO 2 MILLION CITIZENS
By Leighton Ku

The Deficit Reduction Act signed by the President in February contains a new mandate requiring the 50 million U.S. citizens who receive Medicaid coverage, as well as all future citizen applicants for Medicaid, to prove their citizenship by providing documents such as birth certificates or U.S. passports. In January, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released an analysis of a nationally representative survey, conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, that found that 3.2 to 4.6 million U.S.-born low-income citizens on Medicaid would face serious problems because they did not have a birth certificate or passport readily available.<1>

Interim final regulations issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on July 12 make two significant improvements in the new documentation requirement.<2> First, elderly and disabled citizens who are enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid or are enrolled in Medicaid because they receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits will not be subject to the new requirement. Second, the regulation clarified that states may use computerized matches of state vital records databases to check whether beneficiaries or applicants were born in the United States and therefore are native-born citizens; the earlier guidance appeared to discourage such matching. These improvements, however, do not resolve all the difficulties created by the new requirement.

--more--
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Although this report is about Medicare recipients, it does not bode well for those in the lower economic classes who might not have access to documentation required to vote under HR 4844, and for whom securing such documentation could prove burdensome. If it causes so many problems that 3.2 to 4.6 million U.S.-born low-income citizens on Medicaid face serious problems proving their US citizenship for something tangible like health care, then how many millions will not be voting because they simple do not have the time, money, or knowhow to secure such documents in order to participate in a democratic process fraught with fraud, disenfranchisement, and corruption.

And don't forget, the higher one goes on the economic ladder, the more likely that person will vote Republican.