Posted by Bob Janova at 12:56pm Jul 16 '12... where the answer is 'in theory, sure, but ...'.
In theory, there's nothing wrong with requiring a verifiable voter ID to be presented before a vote is counted. In fact several countries do this already, I believe: countries such as France where citizens have an identity card have to present it at elections.
However, when you're starting from a position where there is no such ID and no infrastructure in place to give them to people who are legal voters but not 'convenient' (unregistered births, poorly documented immigrants, or just people who can't afford the time or money to get any prospective new ID), to introduce such an ID requires a very careful process to avoid demographically distorting disenfranchisement (how's that for alliteration?).
I have no problem with a tax-funded program to supply no-cost IDs to those who really can't afford them.
Good for you, I don't think it's right that anyone should have to pay for something mandatory, so I'd be right with you there. But I'm not sure that most Americans would agree with you, considering what seems to be the prevailing attitude to government spending over there.
In theory, there's nothing wrong with requiring a verifiable voter ID to be presented before a vote is counted. In fact several countries do this already, I believe: countries such as France where citizens have an identity card have to present it at elections.
However, when you're starting from a position where there is no such ID and no infrastructure in place to give them to people who are legal voters but not 'convenient' (unregistered births, poorly documented immigrants, or just people who can't afford the time or money to get any prospective new ID), to introduce such an ID requires a very careful process to avoid demographically distorting disenfranchisement (how's that for alliteration?).
I have no problem with a tax-funded program to supply no-cost IDs to those who really can't afford them.
Good for you, I don't think it's right that anyone should have to pay for something mandatory, so I'd be right with you there. But I'm not sure that most Americans would agree with you, considering what seems to be the prevailing attitude to government spending over there.
I think this is one of those times ... - Bob Janova