May I see your papers, citizen?

How is it unfair to require anyone to present a valid ID to show who they are?
Getting an ID is not that difficult, nor is it that expensive.
For example, getting a state ID in Indiana to use for voting purposes is free...

Viviette Applewhite is 93 years old and has voted in nearly every election for the last 60 years. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Georgia. She has tried for years to obtain photo ID to no avail. Under Pennsylvania's new voter ID law, Ms. Applewhite's vote will not be counted. She is a plaintiff in our lawsuit to stop voter ID.

Mrs. Applewhite doesn't have a photo ID. Her purse was stolen and she hasn't been able to replace her identification because state officials can't find her birth certificate. And she won't be able to vote in Pennsylvania this fall. She's the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the state's new voter suppression law that was recently filed by the ACLU, the Advancement Project, the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (PILCOP) and the Washington, DC, law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP.

The lawsuit alleges that the state's voter photo ID law violates the Pennsylvania Constitution by depriving citizens of their most fundamental constitutional right - the right to vote. The plaintiffs are asking the Commonwealth Court to issue an injunction blocking enforcement of the law before November's election. If the law is not overturned, most of the plaintiffs will be unable to cast ballots in the fall, despite the fact that many of them have voted regularly for decades.

Among the other petitioners:

Pittsburgh resident Henrietta Kay Dickerson was required by PennDOT to pay for the ID because her old one had not been expired for more than a year, a qualification not contained in the law but which PennDOT is regularly enforcing." In other words, this is a poll tax.

Asher Schor is a transgender man (female to male) whose driver's license has a picture of a woman and says he is female, but because he now looks, dresses and sounds like a man is likely to encounter problems at the polls in November.

Bea Bookler is a 93-year-old woman with limited mobility who uses her walker to get to the polling station next door to her assisted-living facility, but she does not have ID and the burden of getting the necessary documents and the ID itself would be too much for this senior citizen.
Joyce Block is an 89-year-old resident of Doylestown who was rejected for a voter ID by PennDOT because she did not have legal documents proving that her married name on the voter registration really was the same person listed on her birth certificate. Her only evidence was a marriage certificate in Hebrew, which the PennDOT staff could not read.

In order to get the accepted Pennsylvania photo ID, would-be voters have to provide a raised seal birth certificate and an official Social Security card. In a perfect Catch-22, those who don't have Social Security cards need photo IDs in order to obtain them. The $10 fee to get a copy of a birth certificate is non-waivable. The state is supposed to provide state IDs for free, but that's not been the experience of would-be voters. "Dozens of reports have been received about PennDOT's refusal to issue free IDs, insisting, for example, that people must pay because they have had an ID in the past, their ID has not been expired long enough, they don't replace lost ones for free, or people with outstanding child support or fines don't qualify for free IDs."

Pennsylvania's voter ID law, like so many of the other states', is nothing less than a poll tax. Lawyers have asked that the court block implementation of the law, and have requested an expedited hearing of the case, hoping to have the suit settled by November.

Paul Carroll, an 86-year-old World War II veteran who has lived in the same Ohio town for four decades, was denied a chance to vote in the state's primary contests today after a poll worker denied his form of identification, a recently-acquired photo ID from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The poll worker rejected the ID because it did not contain an address, as required by Ohio law.

Carroll told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that he got the ID from the VA after his driver's license expired because he doesn't drive anymore:


“My beef is that I had to pay a driver to take me up there because I don’t walk so well and have to use this cane and now I can’t even vote,” said Paul Carroll, 86, who has lived in Aurora nearly 40 years, running his own business, Carroll Tire, until 1975.

“I had to stop driving, but I got the photo ID from the Veterans Affairs instead, just a month or so ago. You would think that would count for something. I went to war for this country, but now I can’t vote in this country.”

A local Veterans Affairs employee told the Plain Dealer that the decision not to include the address was likely made at the federal level, and because VA IDs are accepted at any location, "the actual address of a veteran isn't as critical to us." Carroll was offered a provisional ballot, but the type was too small for him to read and "I was kind of perturbed by then," he said.

Republicans across the country have pushed voter ID laws to address a voter fraud "problem" that rarely, if ever, exists. Multiple laws have been challenged in court over claims that they disenfranchise voters, particularly minorities and the elderly. Carroll's story isn't altogether unique - Tennessee voter authorities denied a 96-year-old woman a voter ID last year because she didn't have an original copy of her marriage license.

This is political cheating. The Republicans are pushing bills through that will make it harder for certain types of Americans, minorities and college students because it gives them a political advantage.

A bit confused on this. Every college student I know of has to have ID to be in college and every single college requires ID to be a student

Besides, what small percentage of college students actually vote?

State officials are running into problems with the new voter-identification law even before the federal government has approved or rejected it. Voters without a photo ID are facing a circular problem: They need a certified birth certificate to get the voter ID, and they need a photo ID to get the birth certificate.

Pamela Weaver, spokeswoman of the Mississippi Secretary of State's office, today confirmed the catch-22 problem, which the Jackson Free Press learned about from a complaint posted on Facebook. One of the requirements to get the free voter ID cards is a birth certificate, but in order to receive a certified copy of your birth certificate in Mississippi, you must have a photo ID. Not having the photo ID is why most people need the voter ID in the first place.

This is all a solution in need of a problem.

The problem is that over ten million people have entered the country illegally, nothing much is being done about it, and some of them are probably voting. I don't want non-citizens to vote

DrewDad wrote:

This is all a solution in need of a problem.

The problem is that over ten million people have entered the country illegally, nothing much is being done about it, and some of them are probably voting. I don't want non-citizens to vote, and I especially don't want illegal immigrants voting against any candidate who advocates enforcing the immigration laws. If the law is being violated by having non-citizens vote, then the people deserve to be able to have some remedy. There is no valid argument that any attempt whatsoever of the people to enforce the law is unfair. No other law has to survive the standard that if anyone is ever falsely accused then the law can no longer be enforced.

1) Do you have a current, unexpired government-issued ID with your picture on it, like a driver’s license or a military ID?

2) If yes, does this photo ID have both your current address AND your current name (as opposed to a maiden name) on it?

3) Do you have any of the following citizenship documents (U.S. birth certificate/U.S. passport/U.S. naturalization papers) in a place where you can quickly find it if you had to show it tomorrow?

4) If yes, does [that document] have your current name on it (as opposed to a maiden name)?

To suggest that none of the 12 million illegals in the country might try to vote is ludicrous.

To suggest that the people have no right to seek any remedy to violation of their laws is ridiculous.

You are applying a standard which isn't applied to enforcement of any other law - that no innocent people ever be accused.

People are accused of things that they are innocent of every day. As with the enforcement of any other law, you just try to get it right. You cannot say that a law cannot be enforced because mistakes will be made. You cannot say that any attempt to enforce the law is evil. I personally, as one citizen, want some filter in place to prevent illegals from voting, and I have an absolute right to see that happen.

Maybe if the number of illegals in the country can be reduced to only a few hundred thousand I won't care, but at the present levels I do.

People are accused of things that they are innocent of every day.

personally, as one citizen, want some filter in place to prevent illegals from voting

The problem is they have restricted ID to only certain IDs. Then it costs money to get those IDs. THen it costs money to get the documents to get those IDs. That is a poll tax and is illegal under US law.

The law, signed by Gov. Phil Bryant (R) earlier this year but still pending federal approval, includes a measure allowing Mississipians to get free voter ID cards if they present a birth certificate. But Mississippi law also requires its residents to show valid photo identification in order to get a copy of their birth certificate. Most applicants for voter ID cards are presumed to be seeking them because they don't have another acceptable form of photo ID. In other words, no birth certificate, no voter ID -- but also no photo ID, no birth certificate.