Voter ID laws

[Horace]

Do you think voter ID laws or their absence have any meaningful effect on election results? Or is the issue just political posturing? If you think voter ID laws affect election results, what's the mechanism? Do ID requirements keep people from voting, who would otherwise vote? Or do they prevent fraudulent votes? A little of everything probably, but what's the biggest practical effect of ID laws?

[Jolly]

I think they prevent fraudulent votes. I've always had to show ID to vote. The only reason not to, is because someone is doing something illegal in the process.

[Copper]

Has Ax given us the name of even one person who has been unable to vote because of evil republican laws?

[Horace]

At the time of publication, Ax has not responded to multiple requests for that information.

[xenon]

You should have to show an ID to vote. But there's not much evidence of large-scale illegal voting - and it makes sense if you put yourself in the shoes of a would-be illegal voter. Those are two separate issues though.

How many people are willing to risk jail-time for what? What's the mechanism of illegal votes? Voting multiple times? Illegals voting (risking deportation)?

I don't get the incentive to do it.

[Copper]

@xenon said in Voter ID laws:

incentive to do it.

Every Ward Captain has a quota, it might be a few hundred votes.

You fill in the ballots and put them in the box.

You make your quota and you keep your job. Later on, there are other favors.

They add up.

[Jolly]

As I understand it, Biden & Cameltoe are about the only major figures in the Dem party still fighting vociferously against voter ID. I suspect the focus groups have spoken, as many of the other major Dem pols have toned down their rhetoric or ceased talking about it completely.

[Doctor Phibes]

@horace said in Voter ID laws:

A little of everything probably, but what's the biggest practical effect of ID laws?

The biggest effect isn't likely to be preventing actual fraud, but shutting people up who go on about voter fraud.

And personally I'm all for it.

The down-side is that a separate bunch of equally annoying people will start going on about disenfranchised voters.

[Horace]

@doctor-phibes said in Voter ID laws:

@horace said in Voter ID laws:

A little of everything probably, but what's the biggest practical effect of ID laws?

The biggest effect isn't likely to be preventing actual fraud, but shutting people up who go on about voter fraud.

And personally I'm all for it.

The down-side is that a separate bunch of equally annoying people will start going on about disenfranchised voters.

Maybe the Dems are against ID laws because their absence gives oxygen to claims of voter fraud. They know they can effectively turn those claims around as laughable conspiracy theories, believed by conservative morons. Jan 6 will be heavily used in such rhetoric.

[Mik]

[Aqua Letifer]

@mik said in Voter ID laws:

Poor bastards. Coyote Jim once told me that on the Epson Trail, folk would resort to drinking toner and eating their own collated sheets just to survive.

[Aqua Letifer]

You have died from dysentery a paper jam.

[Jolly]

I think the GOP should call the Dem's bluff. The Republicans need to kick off the nation's largest voter registration drive. After all, people need to exercise their franchise to vote!!

Plus, while they are chasing down people in the highways, byways and back alley ways registering them to vote, the Republicans are going to make sure every one of these new registrants will have Voter ID!

That way, there will be no confusion. There will be no yearning, prospective voters, teeming around polling places, lacking the ID to cast their ballot preferences. There will be no turning away or provisional ballots.

Step right up, show us your new ID, sign your name on the voter's roles and we'll usher you right to the voting booth.

Hey, help us to help you!