A terrorist is registered to vote. A terrorist is registered to vote!
You know who's not registered to vote? My brother. He registered in his college town back when he was in school, and he procrastinated and didn't leave himself enough time to re-register in his new city. He figured he'd just have to drive back to his college town on 2 Nov, but when he called the board of elections, they told him they'd removed him from the list. Apparently they sent him something in the mail that he didn't reply to, so they crossed him off. So now he can't vote.
Michelle Malkin reports that many states have trouble removing the names of people who have died or moved away, and that that voter list can often dwarf the population count. Illinois was sure quick to remove my brother though.
So a terrorist will be voting, but my brother will not.
Why oh freaking why don't we have to provide identification when we register to vote? At many places you have to show an ID to check into a hotel or rent a movie. (Hell, I have to show ID to Soldiers with M16s when I want to buy groceries; ID is just a way of life for us.) In the US, a driver's license is proof that you're who you say you are, and at least in Illinois, if you don't drive, the DMV will make you a valid ID card instead. No one is disenfranchised. No one is discriminated against if they don't drive. And no freaking illegal alien terrorists will end up on the lists!
Every poll known to man shows Bush ahead right now, but I ain't sleepin' easy when Mary Poppins and Nuradin Abdi are registered to vote.
Posted by Sarah at October 23, 2004 09:13 AMI really, really, don't understand why it's such a big deal to make someone show an ID to vote. Okay, you're right that military life sort of makes you used to always having and showing an ID- and it's no big deal for us. (My friends cringe when I tell them I was required to give up a DNA sample, but that's another issue... though no big deal to me)
What gets me is that one of my best friends, a true lifelong democrat, also is in favor of showing ID to vote- And he buys into the whole democratic party line on the 2000 Florida vote.
Seems like a no-brainer to me, but I must be missing something.
Posted by: Jack Grey at October 23, 2004 12:03 PM"Seems like a no-brainer to me, but I must be missing something."
What you're missing is, if an ID is required to vote, Mary Poppins and the Poppin Fresh Doughboy
couldn't cast their vote for the democrate of their choice. It's kinda in the same line as "vote early and vote often".
I have two problems with the ID-required-to-vote idea, one solveable, one not.
The not-so-solveable problem is this: currently there is no legal requirement that people have identification. Requiring ID to vote would in effect constitute such a requirement; and there's something in me that rebels against the idea that in a free society, we should have to have a card that allegedly proves that we are who we claim to be.
The more-easily solved problem is this: since people have to pay for their ID/DL, requiring people to have one in order to vote is de facto a poll tax, in violation of the 24th amendment. (This can be resolved by providing a free ID that can be used for voting purposes).
Posted by: aphrael at November 2, 2004 12:13 AM