This is not
my first time talking about voter suppression and probably will not be the last.
You may not be familiar with Mike Turzai and what he and his fellow Republicans
are doing in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is just one of the states that THIS
election year is going to require photo ID in order to cast your vote. They
even admit that they don’t have ANY cases of voter fraud in the state but still
wants to push this thru. There must be a reason.
Mike Turzai
is a Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and has
represented the 28th district since 2001. He is also the Majority Leader
for the House.
Some people
would say that it is a good idea to have voters show ID and I would bet these
are people WITH ID. Mr. Turzai while speaking to a group of Republicans told
the truth about what they are doing in his state. Proving they will and ARE doing
whatever it takes to get President Obama out of office. If they have to cheat
to do it then so be it.
Cheating was
once something that people would try to hide but not anymore. Not only will
they do it out in the open, now they will put it on video and list them. On 23
June of 2012 this is some of what Mr. Turzai had to say.
This is not
the only place this is going on. Voter suppression is also going on in Ohio and
Florida just to name a few. Democrats filed a lawsuit to block this law but a
Federal Judge said that there was no proof that this law targeted anyone. Now
Democrats have to try to get the word out to all the people this law is
targeted to stop. There will be people showing up to vote that have no idea
that the law has been changed. They will show up to cast their vote and will be
turned away and not have time to get the NOW required ID and return to exercise
their right to vote.
These new
groups of Republicans are determined to get what they want. If they can’t beat
you fair and square they have no problem with CHEATING. Waiting until the voting year to make changes to the voting law IS CHEATING.
Interesting article for sure and I see your point but I also don't have an issue with showing ID. Most people already have ID's and they are cheap to get. You need an ID for most everything these days. If I go to see a doctor or for blood work, first thing they ask for is my insurance card and picture ID. Hell, you even need an ID to cash most govt issued checks, so that leads me to believe that a lot more people than you think have ID's to begin with.
ReplyDeleteThen I guess you are saying that MOST people have the right to vote, where I would say that ALL people have the right to vote. That is one place where we differ. As for IDs being cheap. I would ask you to define cheap. As I understand it, the IDs cost about $25 which may not be much money to the two of us but I can see where it could be a lot of money to some.
ReplyDeleteI agree we do need ID for most everything. Those are choices we make as we live our lives. Thing is, we are talking about a constitutional right. Republicans are pretending voter fraud as a way to keep some people from voting. Spending money they claim we don't have for social programs to fight imaginary problems. Would you support, as Stewart said, the government passing laws requiring everyone walk their Unicorns on a leash?
Not only do people have to pay for ID that they should not need but they also have to get to the DMV. There are some counties in your home state that doen't have a DMV and some of the others are only open 1 day a week. It may not be easy for people to get an ID card. Everyone doesn't live in the city.
We are talking about what is right for ALL people. They are fixing a problem that doesn't exist by hurting those that have the least, the poorest of the poor. I'm still surprised that YOU are okay with that.
All people have the right to get an ID...not most. If requiring an official ID helps stop voter fraud, why would anyone be against it. Anyone can go and get either a drivers license or ID for non drivers. Whereas in previous elections, there have been numerous cases where a certain party tried to get illegal immigrants to vote illegally, so this just makes a fair playing field. The real reason the Dems are against this is twofold. One, it gives them yet another chance to try and inject race into the subject, and two, it prevents them from attempting voter fraud in battlefield states.
ReplyDeleteAs for why PA would do this law, I can only imagine they are pushing all the voter angles they can after the blatant voter intimidation that was taking place in Philly during the 2008 election, or did everyone forget the New Black Panther Party sending guys with clubs out to polling places to intimidate voters, turning several away?
ReplyDeleteIn the United States documented voter fraud over the last 10 years is about .000024 and I may have left out a 0 or 2. I think election fraud is a bigger problem but looking into that could get you killed. Illegal voting is a felony. I don't think many people are stupid enough to go out and risk their freedom to cast one vote when most elections are decided by thousands of votes. I guess you are saying that all those Republican states just happen to change their voting laws at the same time. This is a coordinated effort to block thousands of people from the polls. We have more of a history of people not being allowed to vote than we have illegal voting. I know you don't need me to list the history blocking people from voting.
ReplyDeleteAbout the Black Panther guys. Those guys should have been arrested. I really mean that. They should have sent a cop car and arrested BOTH of those guys. There are also groups trying to do the same thing on your side. One group had I think 3400 people but they were blocked by the Feds. I will have to look that on up.
In a nutshell I just don't think it is enough of a problem that we make this much of a change to the system especially coming from the party saying they want a smaller government. So let me be clear. If someone votes that should not vote they should go to jail. If someone blocks another person from voting, they should go to jail. We ALL have the right to vote and if ANYONE gets in the way of that right, they should go to jail.