I have always been amazed at the low turnout in general elections in the U.S. In most of the Western world, the right to vote is considered a responsibility of citizenship that everyone takes very seriously, and most governments do everything in their power to encourage people to vote. To increase turnout, some countries declare Election Day a holiday, others vote on weekends, others vote on two consecutive weekdays.
It seems to me that in the U.S., much is done to suppress voter turnout. One way to discourage turnout is by having election day on a Tuesday, when the polls are open for a limited time only! Another way is to make the absentee voting process difficult. Yet another way is to misinform people about the location of their polling place at the last minute. Or to pass legislation such as H.R. 4844.
H.R.4844, the "The Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006" passed the House of Representatives on September 20, 2006. You can read the vote results here.
The Afro American Newspaper has an article about this new "poll tax". Here is what Representative Lewis from Georgia has to say.
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) on Sept. 20, joined other CBC members and members of Congress of Asian and Latino caucuses in voicing concerns about the bill."I am beyond disgusted," he said of the bill's passage, "I am shocked."
Noting that Georgia is wrestling with the issue of voter IDs, he said:
"I find it hard to believe that the Republican leaders in Congress would put election year games ahead of the voting rights of Americans. People died in democratic process. We must not turn back the clock. We must open up the political process and let all Americans come in."Lewis stated that getting a passport costs $100 and a birth certificate goes for $15. He noted that "a poll tax is an extra burden on their most precious right" which is to vote.
It is usually more difficult for the elderly, the poor or those who live in remote areas, to even obtain copies of birth certificates. Could it be that the Republicans target Democratic voters with this legislation? No, they wouldn't do that. Or would they?
The NAACP is concerned about further erosion of voting rights, but our representatives do not seem to care.
NAACP President and Chief Executive Officer Bruce Gordon said that the bill's name is misleading and that instead of securing the integrity of the elections process, it undermines it."To add insult to injury, the bill would do little or nothing top prevent actual instances of voter fraud," Gordon said. "Rather (the bill) would only exacerbate the already existing problem of voter non-participation by erroneously removing or discouraging countless eligible voters, American citizens from the process."
The bill still has to go through the Senate and has to pass both houses before it can be enacted into law.
Tonight, I will be attending the Annual NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet in Arlington. I am sure this will be a topic of conversation.
UPDATE: Although most people wanted to talk about the Senate race, I had the opportunity to discuss this issue with some people at the NAACP event. One woman found that a voter registration card should suffice to go vote. Another thought that this is another way to discourage people from voting.
Tonight, a friend of mine was the recipient of the 2006 Charles Monroe Civil Rights Award. In her acceptance speech she said that we should not become complacent, because racism and discrimination are still alive in the U.S. Very fitting after reading about this "poll tax".
And there is no such thing as a tamper resistant id, or one that cannot be counterfitted. Doesn't matter if it is fitted with RFID, has magnetic strips, whatever you might do -- all of that technology is ultimately a waste of money.
but a simple ATM banking card is fairly tamper resistant due to the banking system.
There are cheap ways to improve the situation. and Diebold needless to say should be run out of town (country) and never involved, which is another great concern of going from frying pan to fire on DoD/DHS contract corruption.
Right now I can buy a new ID, complete with stolen social security number for about $69 bucks in LA. I can also buy a UC diploma that is verifiable for about $200.
It's really a problem.
What do you see as the problems?
I think it's just recognizing reality. You need IDs to drive, enter a public building, go drinking, cash a check, go overseas, get on an airplance, rent, etc. I whip out my IDs whenever I get pulled over, go to work, get on an airplane. I don't always like it but I don't feel like Winston Smith in "1984".
You'll note I said tamper resistant, not fool proof. Stiff jail terms for violators will prevent most abuse.
One of the big upshots is that's we'll cut down on tax evasion and identity theft. There are some big benefits.
Sorry, but I agree with Ken. I think this gives Choice Point and its friends in the White House way too much power, and us none over our confidential data.
The problem is, it will cost money, (even if the ID card is free) because you would need to submit a passport or birth certificate to prove your identity. Many people, especially poor people, do not have a passport or a copy of their birth certificate. It would be costly for them to get either of those documents. $15 is a lot of money for poor people. Enough to keep them from voting.
2) even one of the supporters undercuts his arguments when he notes all the fakes he can easily obtain.
3) I am not about to agree to something that lets a government led by these bozos have an easier time tracking me I will become a non-person first, and go off gride
4) there is something fundamentally opposed to our way of life historically in having an internal passport, which is what this is, which is why it is like the old USSR -- I do not at all think the comparison is over the top - in fact, the internal passport was one thing for which the political Right used to regularly criticize the old USSR, and now they want to implement it here? What hypocrisy.
Personally I think the nation should use the Oregon system, it's 100% absentee and it allows anyone time to study the issues, be able to vote even if you're working 3 jobs and have kids, no lines, and to become registered is done before hand to prove citizenship and they have signatures on file to prevent fraud (you sign your ballot).
It's the best system I've ever seen frankly and one could put even more procedures in place to ensure no fraud but in terms of being just plain able to vote easily, this is the best.
Forget telling people about precincts, in this day and age just trying to get to the precinct with your job, your kids, your dog and employers so hostile to even a piddle break has got to lose a good percentage of voters.
You have about 2 weeks to actually vote and mail it in or drop it off.
so there still is a little buzz...
I lived in SF and I gotta tell ya, the voter pamphlet was an all day study. They would word position statements, especially on ballot initiatives that truly took some research to find out what it was really about...
i.e. taxicab drivers would be worded "increase competitiveness" when in fact the true goal was to union bust/lower wages and so on.
CA Prop 209 was worded so funky people didn't actually understand what they were voting on.
In Oregon, when you got these funky things (such as right now there is a huge initiative/campaign to stop insurance companies from using credit information to set insurance rates) so insurance companies are of course all over the TV claiming this will raise rates (untrue, there is only 1 study "correlating" low credit scores to insurance and plenty of data saying the relationship is spurious at best)...
But, in OR you can actually read up on something before you vote, it really helps not being presented with something in the ballot box you don't understand, never even heard of until you're actually voting, and pray you're voting the right way.
Also helps on candidates you've never heard of and what are they about and so on.
Mainly that horror story in Ohio, waiting in line 9+ hours (my God, how did these people pee?) for someone who is poor, odds are working 2 jobs and odds are w/ kids..how could they possibly afford the time to stand in a line 9 hours?
This is massive vote fraud, the likes of which eclipses any alleged attempt by unqualified persons to vote. I think way too many of us have bought into the GOP myth (and a racist one at that) that voter fraud is levied by African Americans, when it (the GOP) is the greatest contributor to the problem.
Election day should be a holiday. The weekends would create a religious problem for many people, either on Saturday or Sunday.
Apparently that is Oregon's solution. I've thought about voting on Sundays or making voting a holiday, or extending the voting to two days, using retinal scans, and so on, but there is now no doubt whatsoever that election reform must begin with paper ballots and you don't have to find your precinct, get off work to vote, or anything else. Results are easily verified, there can be a genuine re-count, and the record remains. Yes, I know sometimes we have really long ballots including propositions and amendments and so on, but so what? No question of "convenience for the election workers" can possibly trump the absolute necessity for safe, accurate voting.
After the paper ballot in enshrined, then we can tackle gerrymandering.
In answer to the FL voting debacle of 2000, congress created
HAVA. As a result of hard selling e-voting machines to localities, HAVA has thrown the voting process in some regions into an electronic e-vote abyss- the latest being MD.
Americans must demand verifiable (paper trail), transparent, non-privatized open voting processes (i.e. out of the hands of corporations that claim proprietary protections to block auditing and access to their software and machinery) in all U.S. Districts. The latest HAVA amendment is another smoke screen in the voters face. My REP followed the bouncing Rubbertamp and voted YEA.
I would, however, want the card to be issued:
a) free of charge
b) when one goes to register to vote.
That would allow one to go at one's convenience (not everyone on the same day, causing mile-long lines), and allow more time to assemble all the necesary/acceptable paperwork. It would still hit those who were born at home, without any medical assistance, and never got a proper birth certificate (more common 90 yrs ago than now). But it needn't penalize others, especially if birth certificate data were easily accessible to people registering for the vote (puters!)
I'd have much less of a problem with Diebold (etc) if the voting machines *did* operate on a basis similiar to the "cash cows", aka ATMs -- you make your choices and, if you request it, a *paper* receipt issues out, telling you what you've done and how much your total is after the transaction. Don't see why the voting machine could not do the same, even though voting doesn't add directly to any stockholder's portfolio. God knows that the banks keep *most stringent* tabs on one's cards...
I was in Montreal recently and, by mistake, put my credit card (instead of the debit one) into the machine. Punched the debit one's numbers, was refused, realised what I'd done and finished the transaction using the debit card. 2 weeks later, I got a "leeetle notice" from my credit card issuer (at my home address)... It has come to their attention that, perhaps, I've forgotten my password, so, please call them (number supplied) and they'll remind me what it is.
I found it truly spooky, but only because I've been here for 33 yrs and have (partly
If a bank can do it (and they keep their data for *ages*, too; I recently requested a credit check), I don't see why a voting machine couldn't do as effective a job.
The absentee ballots... All it takes is have *one* important piece of mail getting lost, for a person to get really sour on postal services... In small places, where everyone knows everyone else (I don't *need* my ID card when I go to vote; I'm asked about my family, told that I'm lazy -- my husband voted 2 hrs before me -- and catch up with the number of grandchildren they can score off of me, since my son refuses to get serious), mail could get lost "accidentally on purpose"...
All that said, a person's accurate identity and the ease with which that person can establish it at a polling place as to their right to vote only once and for whom THEY choose, is most of the final answer on controlling fraud at the polls. A real non-tamper auto cross checking and logging system can work as good as or better than any paper based system if the government that runs the polls wants the system to be 100 percent accurate. We use identity based systems everyday without compromise to open doors at work and protect the lives of our soldiers, this is NOT rocket science if the government really wants to have a secure system to protect our most basic rights in a democracy.
They can track you across the nation, just by your purchases...they can profile you just by what you buy.
Just wait until the talking coke machine tells you, you're thristy because you walked by one with the location based services coming to a cell phone near you. Of course you will able to charge that coke the coke machine just told you you wanted as you walk by it to your cell phone account.
Over in Europe, they have strong privacy laws but over here, it's like the government just sics these marketing/profile people lose on Americans.
But, all of this stuff on IDs, profiling and so forth, seriously Wal-Mart even knows which condoms you prefer and has cross correlated that with how many pairs of socks you buy.
There is even digital watermark in cash, which if you get really paranoid could be used (depending upon the watermarking methodology) to track a person.
Maybe a tax deduction or just plain make it free. I have no idea how much an ID costs (driver's license) I think a passport is kind of spendy but I got mine now almost 10 years ago.
Gee wiz, do it the Oregon way, that solves all of this.