You don't need ID to vote= Fraud (stealing YOUR vote)

[FreddyE1977]

The county where I live has for years sent out a Voter Registration Card to you after you register to vote.
It does not have a photo on it, but indicates where you live, the ward/precinct where you are registered,
and party affiliation if you have chosen one.   It is sent out free of charge.  (and, as I indicated in an
earlier post, every once in awhile they get into trouble for sending one out to somebody's dog or child
who was registered as a joke)

Would not be asking very much to add a photo to this.  It could be provided for free (and in fact,
would have to be to comply with recent court rulings).  And either you have one of these cards or you don't.
I really don't see what is so complicated about it.  Whether the election official is a Democrat or Republican
would be irrelevant to the issue of "is this the required ID card or not?"  (and all polling places have both
Democrat and Republican inspectors on duty...it's the law)

And in cases of dispute there are always officials available and a Judge of Elections on duty to rule
on your eligibility (I know this having family members who worked for the Elections Dept. for many years.
If you were wrongly denied they can have a Court Order served at your precinct within the hour.)

I know many people who immigrated here from developing countries.
To a man they are shocked with disbelief to learn how lax our voter ID processes are.
Perhaps because they come from countries where fraud and corruption run absolutely rampant.

[RadioFan2J3]

Just kind of wondering how the people who can't get photo identification anywheres use photo identification to drive, collect welfare, get a passport, get food stamps, prove who they are on an I-9...you know the usual stuff.

Maybe it is because they don't drive, aren't on welfare, don't intend to travel outside the county they live in, much less travel outside the US, aren't on food stamps and are old enough where they don't work anymore?

Does this limit people to a pretty slim demographic?  Sure it does, but it certainly does explain how some people might not have photo IDs acceptable for voting, especially if the individual has been voting for many years and never had to reregister to vote, doesn't drive, might not be interested in travel, is older and financially self sufficent, previously held suitable IDs but they haven't needed to renew the IDs, nor needed any IDs until these recent law changes requiring photo IDs for voting.

I've never filled out an I-9, well, so far, anyway.

[RadioFan2J3]

Goat Rodeo Cowboy, thank you for a very nice summary of the situation.

[quadraphonic]

This thread is either ignoring the actual discussion that is going on in this nation, or is purposly distorting the actual elements of the discussion.

No political group is actually proposing that people should be able to walk into a voting location and based on oral identification only, be given a ballot.

That is how it is today.
It wasn't "proposed." It "just happened." 

Require that people bring their card showing that they registered to vote if you like.  Some states have made registration dependent on the potential voter bringing a utility bill or some other (rather flimsy) proof of where you live.  (For local elections, it is important to prove you are in the correct precinct or ward.)

The whole fight is about states that require PHOTO ID and then narrow down very strictly which photos may be used.

That's hardly "the whole fight." 
That might be where most of the discussion takes place, and most of the boogeyman-creating goes on.

Let's lay the cards... on the table...  FACE UP.  To the best of my knowledge, this "photo required" is ONLY enacted in states where Republicans have control of the legislature and the governor.

Does that mean it can't be discussed anywhere else?  

The reason Democrats get so very picky and childish about this issue is because anecdotal evidence indicates that on election day,

or during the two weeks of early voting in many places? 

people manning the poling place will then also get picky about "what is an acceptable photo" and if Republicans dominate the local apparatus,  when there is an appeal that somewone was wrongly denied the opportunity to vote,  the appeal mechanism is also stacked.

And they aren't already stacked in places where Democrats dominate the local apparatus?
They aren't prone to accepting anyone's word about their name and address? No one's heard "You already voted, Mr. Kimball" anywhere?
It's only a "Republican-control phenomenon?"

Someone suggested that the states should make a photo generating system to assist those who do not have, need or qualify for a drivers licesne  In states where the photo ID laws are put in place and aggressively enforced,  there are reports the the state provided photo creating mechanism mysteriously and consistently breaks down and doesn't show up where it is supposed to be.

What states has this been done in, in order for reports about mysterious, consistent breakdowns to occur?

For most of America, this whole discussion seems like a non-issue,  not worthy of all the heat and attention. Many of us vote in comfortable, stable neighborhoods where voters and election workers greet each other by first name.  We have trouble visualizing what may be happening to refuse and discourage voters three counties over from us.

We forget there are little old widows who either walk to work or ride the bus,

Nobody forgets that. Give the little old widows in the small demographic some credit. They're not invalid, feeble, incapable.

and spend their days washing butts and mopping floors in nursing homes who cannot get to picture taking locations during business hours unless they take a day off from work and find someone who can drive them to the picture loction.  (How many drivers license branches are located along bus routes?)

How many really, in the course of a move to a new precinct, or whatever job situation they might find themselves in, cannot get to a DMV bureau, or other location? How many could not call up their party headquarters, and have someone drive them down, even?
Why excuse their inaction, just because you fear they are being "forgotten?" They're not forgotten, at all.

If they wash butts and mop floors in a nursing home, odds are they went through some background checks that required them to be some other place at some other time other than a day when they were washing butts or mopping floors in order for them to start work. You have to show some kind of ID when you do a drug test, the ones I've been to.

This is a legitimate discussion that is going to be noisy for some time yet.

 
It would be a lot easier if the cards on the table reflected more bits of reality, and less conjecture in the name of personal "compassion."

[borderblaster]

Fine scenario of the older retired person who is financially independent but doesn't drive or travel anywhere...but unless their money is literally in their mattress, they have to have an ID to withdraw funds from the bank.

[Silkie]

DMV provides those in most states.

[quadraphonic]

Too bad there is a segment of the widow demographic that, in the minds of some, are just too feeble to make it to a DMV at any point in time.

[Silkie]

In some states where photo ID isn't required the activists on the left hand side of the road actually stand behind election officials about an hour before poll closing time and demand to know the names of the people who have not voted.  All of a sudden people show up claiming to be those who have not voted yet. 

That's just an observation from a former election official in one such state.

[quadraphonic]

Why not "avoid the appearance of suspicion?"
That's what the ideas behind someone showing some form of ID are geared toward: the ubiquitous "level playing field" for every voter and their identity.

[FreddyE1977]

I've never filled out an I-9, well, so far, anyway.

Then you have been working illegally your whole life.   Or at least since the 1980's when it became the law.

You cannot be legally employed without your employer filling out an I-9.
The government has actually ratcheted up enforcement in recent years.
A representative of your employer must actually witness you filling out the form,
and must sign that they've physically verified your ID.