willbeurdaddy
Posts: 11894
Joined: 4/8/2006 Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: BanthaSamantha quote:
ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy No, just at the polls. I don't know if I like that idea entirely. One can't pass a law mandating ID at the polls and call it a day. It costs a fair deal of money in order to pay for the constitutionally mandated programs meant to increase voter awareness and education on the policy. Likewise, it costs money to retrain poll workers, expand hours at the DMV and records offices, and for supplies to make the influx of voter ID cards. Some of these are essentially one time costs, but others will be yearly costs that will be burdened by already cash-strapped states. Likewise, remember that a photo ID requirement only targets a very specific sliver of potential voter fraud. It is a slice that, for one, doesn't happen that much. There is very little evidence of significant fraud in which a person tries to vote under a different name or votes under the same name in more than one district. Secondly, this very specific type of fraud is incredibly inefficient, especially in relation to the jail time it threatens. Every single vote is worth a sentence up to five years. Additionally, since casting illegal ballots in this way doesn't know party affiliation, any effect it has will essentially wash out. Overall, you have a situation where you're spending taxpayer money to fix a problem that really isn't a problem to begin with. Combine that with the fact that these laws do absolutely nothing to deal with actual substantial threats to the legitimacy of our elections (shoddy electronic ballots, sloppy paper ballot procedures, lost and rediscovered ballots, ballot stuffing, etc.), and you have a law that really isn't a very good idea. (there is also the disenfranchisement consequences of a voter ID law, but I've ignored that in the point I made. That's another topic for another time.) It may not happen much in your opinion, but in an era where a handful of votes in one state can swing an election, 1 fraudulent vote is 1 too many. And disenfranchisement is a canard.
_____________________________
Hear the lark and harken to the barking of the dogfox, gone to ground.
|