Mark Crispin Miller on Bill Moyers Journal tonight, PBS:

[babylonsister]

check local listings.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/

October 17, 2008
Standards for Voter Verification?


Speaking with Bill Moyers on THE JOURNAL this week, Mark Crispin Miller argued against laws mandating that voters present specific forms of identification before casting their ballots:

“{The requirement} harks back to reconstruction and the Jim Crow laws... These IDs are not free. It often involves taking the time and trouble to go work your way through the bureaucracy and get that document... The use of signatures has served us perfectly well for a very long time. That’s kind of a common sense approach to this thing. So I would say that requiring documentation is putting an undue burden on a lot of people who may not have such documentation.”

In a 6-3 decision in April, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Indiana law requiring voters to present specific forms of government-issued identification like drivers’ licenses or passports. Opponents had argued that the law discriminated against poor, elderly, and minority voters. In a column about that Indiana Law, the WALL STREET JOURNAL’s John Fund wrote:

“Supporters say photo ID laws simply extend rules that require everyone to show such ID to travel, enter federal office buildings or pick up a government check. An honor system, in their view, invites potential fraud... A new study by Jeffrey Milyo of the Truman Institute of Public Policy on Indiana’s voter turnout in 2006 did not find evidence that counties with more poor, elderly or minority voters had ‘any reduction in voter turnout relative to other counties’... Indiana officials make the obvious point that, without a photo ID requirement, in-person fraud is ‘nearly impossible to detect or investigate.’”

more...

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/

[babylonsister]

1. On here now. nt

[Junkdrawer]

2. Just watched in Pittsburgh...Mark's on for the last 20-25 minutes...

Given the time frame, Mark did an EXCELLENT job.

[babylonsister]

3. Thanks for the time frame. I'm glad Moyers is covering this. nt

[NYC_SKP]

4. kicking for my sister... nt

[azul]

5. Trust private companies with your vote, for you must abide by the results?

MARK CRISPIN MILLER: Well, I'm as naïve as you are, Bill, in this regard. Listen, for people who haven't heard the facts about what's been going on, on the election front, to suddenly encounter all the evidence of what's really been happening at every level can be staggering. Okay? So people can feel a little bit despairing about it. That's the last thing in the world I want. Indeed, you know, depression is only anger turned inward, as Freud told us. The fact is that we're talking here about a fundamental right, no, about the fundamental right. This is the right on which all our other rights depend, as Tom Paine said. Nothing is more important than this right. This is the right for which millions of our forebears have shed their blood, have died. This is what keeps us free. Only this. If we lose the right to pick our representatives and to get rid of the government when we don't like it anymore, if we don't have that right, if we don't have that power, we're as good as slaves.

[ReadTomPaine]

6. Excellent segment. n/t

[machI]

7. Kick

[FreeStateDemocrat]

8. Obama campaign should make this a major issue, Hammer the hell out of it.

[Echo In Light]

9. K&R

Is there a video link available?

[Fly by night]

10. MCM was excellent on Moyers. My only concern ...

... was discussing the deficiencies of opscan voting without discussing the utility of mandatory random manual audits of the paper (opscan) ballots as a safeguard to those deficiencies. I also cringed when MCM said it might take several days to count paper ballots. The amount of time it takes to count paper ballots is strictly a function of how many people are doing the counting. I do believe that I read here on DU in the last week or so that the recent Canadian elections (on hand-counted paper ballots) were announced in time for the 11:00 pm news on election day.

Those are my only two concerns in an otherwise excellent presentation. I hope everyone gets to see this segment soon.

K&R

[babylonsister]

11. We probably have a lot more people to count, no?

I'd settle for a day or two late vs. a rip-off and months in court.

[EFerrari]

12. Mark gave us a follow up "interview" and I sent him the questions

last night after watching his segment. I'll post it when he gets back to me.

:hi:

[babylonsister]

13. Great-thanks, sfexpat2000!

:hi:

[Kurovski]

14. K&R. (nt)