Voter ID's

[mtangelsfan]

Ok, on here I've been a proponent of voter ID's.  Not perhaps of some of the laws that have been made but of the overall idea of making sure that the person who is voting is the person who is on the registered list.

 

Here is the problem though, I have done absentee ballots for several years now and obviously I do not show my ID to do that.  How would absentee voters meet the ID requirement in this scenario?

[Schildog]

a tribe called quest has been asking the scenario quest for about 20 years.

 

edit: but in all honesty you bring up a good point. probably should just leave shit the way it is. 

Edited December 2, 2014 by Schildog

[TobiasFunke]

Great question. And one I've never even thought of before.

 

I'm one that thinks you should show some form of photo identification to vote.

[nate]

For the most part I was for voter ID until I read about some of the stories and thought about the fact that the less we are required to be tracked by the government the better.

 

Voter fraud has been legal for decades anyway, they just call it gerrymandering.

[arch stanton]

The NSA is probably tracking the polling places and taking facial recognition shots anyway. Just a matter of time before photo ID isn't something you carry in your pocket.

[HaloFan85]

Couldn't the mailman just make a hand delivery and require voter ID and signature before giving the ballot to you?

[Adam]

I used to be for it until I realized votes don't matter in the least. 

[mtangelsfan]

Couldn't the mailman just make a hand delivery and require voter ID and signature before giving the ballot to you?

 

Imagine having to require that all around the world since absentee ballots come from all over the world.  No way.

[TobiasFunke]

Imagine having to require that mailmen do more work than they already barely do. No way.

 Fixed

[mtangelsfan]

I was going to say that but I wanted to not sound unkind for once.

[TobiasFunke]

I could say that because I'm a government employee like they are

[Tank]

Couldn't the mailman just make a hand delivery and require voter ID and signature before giving the ballot to you?

 

how many people are home when the mail is delivered? imagine the headache of trying to track down everyone this way.

[Mark68]

Voter fraud is a made up issue. When you are talking about less than 100 incidents in ten years, with hundreds of millions of votes cast, it's a non-issue.

 

It's a red herring that is brought up by certain elements to ensure that voters don't get an opportunity to vote against them.

 

As far as mail-in ballots are concerned, I believe this problem is solved by only having one ballot mailed per registered voter. If someone really wants to try to print authentic-looking copies of the ballot, envelope, secrecy sleeve, etc, I guess they can, but it seems like an awful lot of effort.

 

The real voter fraud that has been perpetrated on the American people is to equate money with speech. Politicians have been for sale to the highest bidder for a while, but it is now in-your-face obvious.

[Tank]

requiring everyone to have a gov't issued picture ID will be a problem. besides drivers licenses, what other gov't issued photo IDs are out there? passport? military ID? 

 

national ID card seems like an inevitability if this were to become a law.

[mtangelsfan]

Voter fraud is a made up issue. When you are talking about less than 100 incidents in ten years, with hundreds of millions of votes cast, it's a non-issue.

 

It's a red herring that is brought up by certain elements to ensure that voters don't get an opportunity to vote against them.

 

As far as mail-in ballots are concerned, I believe this problem is solved by only having one ballot mailed per registered voter. If someone really wants to try to print authentic-looking copies of the ballot, envelope, secrecy sleeve, etc, I guess they can, but it seems like an awful lot of effort.

 

The real voter fraud that has been perpetrated on the American people is to equate money with speech. Politicians have been for sale to the highest bidder for a while, but it is now in-your-face obvious.

 

I don't really know if it is a real issue or not but wouldn't it be a fallacy to quote the number of incidents considering the whole point of voter fraud is to not make people aware of it?  In other words for how many reported incidents are there ones that were not reported because nobody figured it out?

[Mark68]

I don't really know if it is a real issue or not but wouldn't it be a fallacy to quote the number of incidents considering the whole point of voter fraud is to not make people aware of it?  In other words for how many reported incidents are there ones that were not reported because nobody figured it out?

Maybe the Federal Elections Commission is just as good at finding fraud as the NSA is at monitoring our phone calls.

 

You can't say that election fraud is a bigger problem than the numbers indicate because of an assumption or a feeling. So, we have to deal with the numbers at hand, which indicate that there has been less than a .0001% incidence rate.

 

Personally, I think we should be able to vote online, and/or make election day a national holiday. For the viability of online voting, I can give an example: My student loan profile (I'm in the process of completing my degree). I can access my student loan profile online by logging in using my SSN, date of birth, and PIN code. I think that makes my profile secure. The FEC can use the same encryption technology to ensure that voting is secure and is only possible once per person.

 

But this will probably not happen any time soon, because there is political gain for one side to disenfranchise those who would not likely vote for them anyway.

[Taylor]

Perhaps they could make it so that when you apply for absentee voting, you have to include a copy of your driver's license or other government issued ID. I too am an absentee voter but I forget what the process is like to apply for it. I think I did it online.

[Mark68]

Perhaps they could make it so that when you apply for absentee voting, you have to include a copy of your driver's license or other government issued ID. I too am an absentee voter but I forget what the process is like to apply for it. I think I did it online.

Here in CO, where it is all vote-by-mail, the secretary of state's website allows you to register online if you have a state-issued DL or ID. If you don't, you can download the PDF from the website or go to your county clerk's office.

 

I would imagine that in any state, you can start at the secretary of state's website and they will direct you to where you need to go.

[Tank]

 

Personally, I think we should be able to vote online, and/or make election day a national holiday. For the viability of online voting, I can give an example: My student loan profile (I'm in the process of completing my degree). I can access my student loan profile online by logging in using my SSN, date of birth, and PIN code. I think that makes my profile secure. The FEC can use the same encryption technology to ensure that voting is secure and is only possible once per person.

 

there's a significant sector of our population that doesn't know how to use technology or has no access to it. how do take care of their right to vote?

[Mark68]

there's a significant sector of our population that doesn't know how to use technology or has no access to it. how do take care of their right to vote?

That's why I indicated that we may have to make election day a national holiday.

 

Or we can all vote by mail.

 

There are actually a few countries that have voting by internet and they have higher voter participation than we have. Granted, some have mandatory voting.

[mtangelsfan]

Maybe the Federal Elections Commission is just as good at finding fraud as the NSA is at monitoring our phone calls.

 

You can't say that election fraud is a bigger problem than the numbers indicate because of an assumption or a feeling. So, we have to deal with the numbers at hand, which indicate that there has been less than a .0001% incidence rate.

 

Personally, I think we should be able to vote online, and/or make election day a national holiday. For the viability of online voting, I can give an example: My student loan profile (I'm in the process of completing my degree). I can access my student loan profile online by logging in using my SSN, date of birth, and PIN code. I think that makes my profile secure. The FEC can use the same encryption technology to ensure that voting is secure and is only possible once per person.

 

But this will probably not happen any time soon, because there is political gain for one side to disenfranchise those who would not likely vote for them anyway.

 

I can say that as easily as you can quote yours.  It is simply anyone's guess what kind of problem it is.

 

ps, I think your black/white, good/bad views are naive.  There isn't a good side and a bad side.  There is a powerful government that gets more powerful every day.  It doesn't matter which party is in power, the one common denominator is we, the people, continue to hand over our rights.  Dem/Rep, Lib/Con doesn't matter as long as we keep bending over and saying "Thank you Uncle Sam, may I have another?"

[Adam]

Does it really matter who gets elected? All we're doing by voting is electing the people the bankers and corporate twatsuckers are going to write huge checks to. 

[Mark68]

Does it really matter who gets elected? All we're doing by voting is electing the people the bankers and corporate twatsuckers are going to write huge checks to.

This is the Pandora's Box that was already opened that Citizens United blew wide open. That's why there will never be any Wall Street executive that will ever be prosecuted for their part in crashing the economy in 2008. Both parties are guilty of collusion in this. I am a registered Democrat only because they are the lesser of the two evils, and because the two-party system really discourages any third parties from becoming relevant on a more permanent basis.

The two parties we have are centrist and reactionary. There is no party for the silent (or not-so-silent) left, and there hasn't been since FDR.

[Mark68]

I can say that as easily as you can quote yours. It is simply anyone's guess what kind of problem it is.

ps, I think your black/white, good/bad views are naive. There isn't a good side and a bad side. There is a powerful government that gets more powerful every day. It doesn't matter which party is in power, the one common denominator is we, the people, continue to hand over our rights. Dem/Rep, Lib/Con doesn't matter as long as we keep bending over and saying "Thank you Uncle Sam, may I have another?"

Believe me, I know not everything is black and white. Some of what I post is to get the conversation going, but I do have definite strong beliefs that I hold deeply, but that can evolve (not be intelligently designed). I used to be more moderate, but I see how things have gotten worse (or were always bad but now my eyes are open). I won't go into them in depth, but I believe strongly that the government can be a force for good, but chooses not to be in many situations because of who holds the purse strings.

I also think that we Americans can be a force for good at home and abroad, but we also choose not to be. Sometimes out of superstition, sometimes out of ignorance, and sometimes out of willful neglect.

[mtangelsfan]

That is up to the individual person.  I would also point out the hundreds of thousands of Americans are doing good at home and abroad for what you would call superstitious reasons.

 

This country is not set up for the government to be a force for good.  The Constitution is about limiting power.  If you want the government in the U.S. to be a force for good then you are going ot have change the structure of our government.