ID… Not Just for Beer Anymore
Chris Larson calls voter ID restrictive.
Chris Larson calls voter ID restrictive. He recently admitted that we here in Wisconsin currently have the fewest voting restrictions in the country, which allows for higher voter turnout. Really? No kidding. No ID means more turnouts? I wonder why that is? It must be because it’s a great system. Well, if it is such a great system then why don’t the unions practice it? I’ll tell you why—it’s because they don’t want non-union, non-members coming in and skewing the vote in one direction or another. Why else would you have such a rule? Is it to disenfranchise non-members? Hardly. Unions not only already know who their members are via the union roster, but upon hiring, each member has to supply the company they work for with not one, but two forms of identification. Yet with all of these redundancies, unions still require a photo ID at the time of voting. Why would anyone support voter ID during union votes (which I do), yet not support voter ID at the polls?
Democrats argue that people (students, the elderly, transients, etc.) will be disenfranchised by being forced to show a photo ID in order to vote. Let’s break that down, shall we? Students can apply for absentee ballots from their home town, most of the time even online. Perhaps schools could even include an absentee ballot form, which would be mailed directly to their college address with a postage paid return envelope, in their registration packet. Either way, these are the highly educated future leaders of our society. I refuse to believe that they lack the acumen or the organizational skills to place alerts in their smart phones to remember to vote.
The elderly are not going to be disenfranchised either. The elderly have been around a long time. It’s kinda what makes them… elderly. Gone are the days where Tim Smith can walk into a town in another state and simply become Bob Johnson, assume that identity and live out his life as Bob without anyone knowing or caring. The fact that anyone could exist in today’s society for more than half a century without the need for identification would literally be a feat worthy of a New York Times Bestseller List biography for someone with either no criminal record or not having abandoned their own family. The elderly, by definition, are old enough to retire and begin collecting social security payments. If someone is collecting social security, they can only do so by showing a what? A photo ID. A photo ID that they got by showing a birth certificate or a… wait for it… social security card.
As for transients, nothing would be more important to me as a homeless man living on the streets during the onset of a Wisconsin winter than to make sure I voted, right? Forget that whole food and shelter nonsense, I need to exercise my constitutional right! Come on. Folks, watch the show I Almost Got Away With It. Homeless people carry ID. It’s the main source of alternate identification for fugitives on the run. Of course, not having a residence makes it a bit difficult to find out exactly WHERE a “home”-less person should go to vote. What district do they vote in? What polling location do they go to? Most people don’t even know their own district information without looking it up on the internet. In any case, there is a solution to that too. Why not give homeless shelters the ability to work with the Census Bureau to give someone a “residence” for voting purposes on their Wisconsin ID?
As of now, anyone can complete a same day voter registration. Elections are not some killer party that Dave dude across the street decides to throw on a random weekend with a 2 day notice. No, they are held every 2 years on even years in either the spring or fall. This isn’t brain surgery, this isn’t rocket science, we’re not forming Voltron here. You register to vote once, and assuming you don’t move, you never have to do so again. Buying a house is literally the largest financial commitment of one’s life. It is not an easy thing to accomplish, it takes time. Making a house into a home is a lifelong journey. Due to that fact, many people who buy houses stay there for a good chunk of their existence. It’s very easy to register to vote once you make this permanent location decision. In fact, it may be a good idea for realtors to include voter registration information in the closing paperwork of any housing purchase. This would considerably lower the need for people to scramble down to city hall in order to register to vote after they move. It could even be included in apartment leases. Same day registration is not necessary.
So why have Voter ID? “Voter fraud doesn’t happen. How many cases have ever been prosecuted?” Let’s not include that Robert D. Monroe character (a conservative by the way) who was charged with over a dozen counts of voter fraud, e.g. cancelling out more than 12 votes. I mean, if no one ever sees it, then it doesn’t happen, right? It’s probably the same reason that there is no teen pregnancy around nowadays. No parent ever sees that taking place, so when their teenager comes to them and calls them grandma and grandpa, it isn’t real because they didn’t see anything? Time stands still for this reason too. The clock said it changed but I didn’t see it so these gray hairs and achy joints are a conspiracy, right
According to high ranking Democrat officials, making someone show a photo ID to in order to vote will be the sole cause of elections swinging in favor of Republicans because being made to show an ID will make people not want to take part in this societal transaction. It also has made Wisconsin the state where we have drastically curbed (via mandatory identification presentation) alcohol consumption, tobacco consumption, line length at the DMV, airline travel, hospital admittance, pharmacy usage, blood donation, bank account openings, check writings, adoptions, social security card acquisitions, jail visits, credit card purchases, pawn shop agreements, firearms purchases (and don’t forget the universal background checks that go along with them), court appearances, and last but not least… union meetings because these are all places and transactions where a photo ID is required. Since it is such a chore to acquire one and show it at the necessary interval, these events and actions have been drastically reduced and/or altered in the state of Wisconsin. All of these places that require a photo identification in order to complete these business transactions requires it because they wish to disenfranchise the very people willing to give them money (and by extension, a means for their survival) for the goods and services they provide, right? It has nothing to do with having to prove who you are in order to prevent nefarious actions from taking place and to prevent innocent people from being hurt in the process.
Voter ID will soon be decided as the law of the land with only one court case blockade left to defeat and the Republicans are going to win by a wide margin. Not because there won’t be a way to commit voter fraud but because, according to Democrats, “enfranchised” Republicans will show up with their IDs and Democrats will stay home and sit on theirs. Because whipping that ID out for beer, credit card purchases AND voting, all in the same day (once every 2 years) is waaaaaay to much to ask a person wishing to participate in this societal transaction by proving that they are who they say are so THEIR vote isn’t cancelled out. Perhaps Republicans just expect too much of people.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.
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Unless you have a machine doing the verification the identification is being done by a human being. Remember literacy test in Mississippi? We have a history in this country of poll workers denying votes to legitimate citizens based on the color of their skin. It may seem so obvious, but look at our history and the rate of fraud and it starts to look quite obviously wrong. Milwaukee *is* the Selma of the north. Pictures and cards guarantee nothing as long as a human gatekeeper is involved. Did not Robert D. Monroe vote in Indiana as well, a state that demands voter ID? http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/2401.htm