More to the point: there still doesn't seem to be any incidence that individual voter fraud is happening on any significant scale. The Milwaukee investigation shows that mistakes / misbehavior by election officials are many, many, many times more likely to result in voting irregularities. I think that's where any efforts should be directed first, both because that's more likely to have a higher return on investment, and because I'm extremely averse to any approach which has the potential to disenfranchise other citizens - especially those among us who are least advantaged.
And that is the biggest objection to these schemes. While it's canon in current Republican thinking that voter fraud is rampant, it's actually at negligible levels. Proposals to "fix the problem" often seem designed to disadvantage particular non-Republican constituencies. For example, consider this:
Studies show that approximately 11 percent of Americans – about
21 million people – lack a current government photo ID, disproportionately racial minorities,
senior citizens, young voters, the working poor and people with disabilities – including:
• 25 percent of African American voting age citizens – more than 5.5. million people
• 15 percent of those earning less than $35,000 a year
• 18 percent of those age 65 and above – more than 6 million voters
• 20 percent of young voters 18-29
For those without ID, the hurdles to obtaining one can be substantial. IDs cost money and
after states’ implementation of the provisions of the REAL ID Act, the underlying documents
necessary to obtain an ID are costly and can be difficult and sometimes impossible to obtain.
To get a state-issued ID, voters must present documents showing identity, citizenship and place
of residence, including a certified birth certificate. In some instances voters must present a social
security card, marriage or divorce records if names have changed, or naturalization papers. A
copy of a certified birth certificate can cost up to $45, and 17 states require a photo ID to obtain
a copy of the birth certificate. Naturalization papers may cost $200. Not only can the process be
burdensome and time consuming, but some may be unable to get underlying documentation at
all, such as those informally adopted at birth, those born in rural settings, those born outside the
United States, those whose records were destroyed in natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina,
which destroyed birth records of thousands of people.
Something that is innocuous and an uneventful requirement to a middle class person, like getting a photo id, can be very difficult or relatively expensive for people in lower economic situations - and many of those vote Democratic. Wisconsin's getting rid of same-day registration is opined to be aimed at students, who may not realize where their residency is, or that they need to register beforehand, and thus disproportionately affects the student vote - and guess which party they often vote for?
This issue is currently a red herring, as the system we have now demonstrably prevents most if not all large-scale fraud. The biggest issue with irregular voting right now seems to be with electronic balloting, and - surprise - that's not a big initiative for the Republicans, since the companies involved tend to support Republican candidates, sometimes in an outspoken way. There have been suspicious elections using electronic voting machines which actually may have resulted in changed results, but that's not the focus - instead, it's on poorly documented or non-existent fraud schemes that are dressed up to look like real problems instead of the side shows they actually are.
Another fake political issue to rile up the base.
MattDaddy: all the evidence is that there is almost no fraud. There are a very, very few examples, but they're so vanishingly small that they're entirely within the margin of error for the vote counting process anyway.
If the goal is to actually get accurate votes, then this will do literally nothing, because the error rate from counting is higher than the error rate from fraud. Even if you totally eliminated fraud, it would have no measurable effect on election outcomes.
However, if you require voter IDs, that's going to suppress a lot of voters. There's a lot of people that don't have cars and can't easily get around, or don't read the papers that closely and don't realize that the law has changed. It's predominantly poor people that will be suppressed.
It is not accidental that the vast majority of those affected by voter ID laws are black.
You might want to think about that. It's imposing a very real penalty on non-mainstream (read: poor black) voters, for no actual benefit. It will absolutely, demonstrably, probably reduce the numbers of blacks and Hispanics voting. And THIS is the real reason they're pushing it, not fraud.
Don't buy what they're claiming. The REAL problem is those pesky poor people voting.
It will absolutely, demonstrably, probably...
Sorry to interrupt. Just quoting this part because I love it.
Argh! That was supposed to be proVably, not proBably.
Great typo, though.
The IDs will be free. From the bill:
The bill also permits an elector who is eligible to obtain a Wisconsin
identification card to obtain the card from DOT free of charge, if the elector
specifically requests not to be charged.
The part you quoted deals with what happens once the federal REAL ID act is implemented in the state. At that time the DOT will no longer be giving out free voter ID cards because the REAL ID Act would overrule it. No need keep giving out free voter ID cards once they can get a free identification certificate which would serve as a valid voter ID.
It's mentioned in the bill. There's a section that talks about the Real ID act and how that affects this bill. Here's the piece about it being free:
An identification certificate is valid for eight years and the fee
for an identification certificate is $18 unless the applicant requests that the
identification certificate be issued without charge.
Not sure if that is a nationwide mandate of the Real ID act or if Wisconsin just wrote the free piece in to cover themselves.
As mentioned later in the article, it seems of uncertain benefit to the Republicans to delay the election. More time to stump, for students to come back from break, and for results to potentially come back from the courts. Throwing the Dems off their game might be worth it for the Repubs, though.
Either way, it's dishonest but, as far as I know, legal to be a spoiler candidate, right?
You better hope that Alvin Greene didn't just move to Wisconsin.
I have to say that I believe either side is capable of this kind of gamesmanship; I don't think it's Republican perfidy, it's just politics. Now, if the state Republican funds were used to pay for a fake Democratic campaign, I'd have issues with that.
After discussing with Mrs. Dim, we've decided to open up our house to any Goodjers who'd like to come help with the recall efforts.
I don't want to clutter the thread, so please PM me if you're interested, and I'll get you details.
Would you pick me up from Manitowoc if if I take the Badger?
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel[/url]]A plan by Republicans to run fake Democratic candidates in this summer's recall elections would cost taxpayers upward of $428,000, according to election clerks.
Hilarious. "We must reduce our expenditures no matter the cost!"
That will only make the defeat take longer, and hit harder.
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