Does your state require a photo ID to vote? Don't vote!

[jp1]

I'm getting really sick of the poverty shaming in this thread. Stop being assholes, people.

Besides the welfare comment, what are you talking about?

[marurun]

Did you read the PDF prfsnl_gmr posted?

...

It isn't as easy or necessary as you suggest...

Upvote. Like. Whatever. This is the point.

DSH I'm going to say it again, Wisconsin was providing Free government IDs to anyone who needed one. How is this disenfranchise the poor? Are you saying that they are so lazy that they can't even be bothered to get off their butt and get their FREE ID? Because this is what I am gathering.

Only the ID itself is free. But the working poor don't have time to stand around and wait in lines for a couple hours when they should be working. The kinds of jobs the working poor tend to have are unforgiving with scheduling and typically don't offer any time off, sick or otherwise, during business hours.

Further, there are costs associated with procuring the necessary documents, assuming the poor can even get them. Certified birth certificates, for example, can cost quite a bit depending on the state, not to mention how long it takes many states to process them. Many poor minorities, especially in black and latino communities, never got proper birth certificates to begin with, despite being born in the US and thus being legal citizens.

So even if the ID is free, the documentation hoops that have to be jumped through, the costs associated with getting proper forms of those documents, and the lost wages due to the time spent trying to make all this happen during daytime work hours all add up to not insignificant money spent and/or lost income for the trouble. Which you would already know if you actually read the stuff Dave posted.

Not to mention the fact that most employers don't give their employees time off to go to the polls to vote.

[jp1]

Honestly, I think it is more insulting to assume that the "working poor" don't have the wherewithal to obtain something as trivial as a photo id. Sixteen year old kids working minimum wage jobs and attending school full time have been known to accomplish this.

Now, whether the hardship should have to be incurred in order to vote is another thing altogether. However, if it is important to you then it becomes a priority, hence the willingness to inconvenience yourself to accomplish it.

If someone can barely keep food on the table, I doubt that they have time to worry about voting in the first place.

[ninjainspandex]

Simple solution, have the government office open during non business hours?

[mjmjr25]

Only the ID itself is free. But the working poor don't have time to stand around and wait in lines for a couple hours when they should be working. The kinds of jobs the working poor tend to have are unforgiving with scheduling and typically don't offer any time off, sick or otherwise, during business hours.

Not to mention the fact that most employers don't give their employees time off to go to the polls to vote.

You can't be serious, Maru - you really really can't.

You would suggest that the working poor work...the perfect schedule...full-time? Mon-Fri 9a-5p? Seriously. Read what you wrote and tell me you aren't seriously suggesting that. Isn't the normal line that the working poor have to work the jobs and hours the more fortunate won't work? ie, overnights, off shift, weekends and holidays.

As for the second bit - do you know that most employers don't allow time off to vote? I believe the opposite is true - the majority of states, by law, require employers to allow employees time off to vote. Some state laws vary and make the unreasonable requirement that the employee announce the time-off request in advance. In states without laws on the books, many employers choose to allow time-off as policy. All of that said - polls are open 10-16 hours in most locales, and this is beyond other options like absentee.

Some of these excuses make this thread feel like an SNL skit. Come correct.

[pepharytheworm]

Dsh makes the most since in this thread and for the first time I somewhat agree with the OP, just not his solution.

When I first heard about this law in Alabama I didn't think much of it til my partner said something about it being hurtful to minorities and other underprivileged people. She guaranteed me that when it goes into effect it will be presented in such a way to represent minorities being OK with it. I dismissed it for the same reasons a lot of you have already stated.

Once it became law I saw billboards informing of the new law. On everyone I saw was a picture of a young black woman holding her ID smiling with wording that photo ID is now acquired to vote. After that point I thought maybe there is more to this than I originally thought.

This is every US citizens right to vote and it should be as easy as possible, too many people don't vote as it is. Everyone should have their voice and feel it would actually be heard.

My move to Oregon from the Alabama and the south in general was in part because a lot of this stuff going on.

[ninjainspandex]

This is every US citizens right to vote and it should be as easy as possible

and I suppose you believe this should also apply to a citizens right to bear arms?

[dsheinem]

Only the ID itself is free. But the working poor don't have time to stand around and wait in lines for a couple hours when they should be working. The kinds of jobs the working poor tend to have are unforgiving with scheduling and typically don't offer any time off, sick or otherwise, during business hours.

Not to mention the fact that most employers don't give their employees time off to go to the polls to vote.

You can't be serious, Maru - you really really can't.

You would suggest that the working poor work...the perfect schedule...full-time? Mon-Fri 9a-5p? Seriously. Read what you wrote and tell me you aren't seriously suggesting that. Isn't the normal line that the working poor have to work the jobs and hours the more fortunate won't work? ie, overnights, off shift, weekends and holidays.

As for the second bit - do you know that most employers don't allow time off to vote? I believe the opposite is true - the majority of states, by law, require employers to allow employees time off to vote. Some state laws vary and make the unreasonable requirement that the employee announce the time-off request in advance. In states without laws on the books, many employers choose to allow time-off as policy. All of that said - polls are open 10-16 hours in most locales, and this is beyond other options like absentee.

So what percentage of otherwise eligible voters would need to be affected by the difficulties Maru points out before you'd acquiesce that they shouldn't be forced to go through the process of obtaining (and often paying plenty of costs for) an ID? Would it bother you at all to see some pretty dramatic race/class and income discrepancies in that population compared to the electorate as a whole? Would it bother you that their voting interests lean heavily against the party pushing for ID laws? Again, the idea is that since we can't reasonably ensure equal access to a State ID for everyone, we really shouldn't make it a requirement to vote - ESPECIALLY since the biggest concern of "voter fraud" at the polling station is such an infinitesimally small problem (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/vot ... d=17213376).

[Jmustang1968]

Those are people caught and indicted.

[dsheinem]

Also, laws regarding time off to vote:

http://www.findlaw.com/voting-rights-law.html