Hi new poster!-Questions about Republican supported voter laws and turnout?

[Tender Branson]

Hi Green State ! Welcome to this Forum !

I'm a liberal Democrat (don't worry about my current GOP avatar and Romney avatar) and I strongly support the Republican-backed measures to introduce photo-IDs in the US to make elections there more transparent.

Of course I only support laws in which the state assures that those who don't have a photo ID yet, will get one for free (the costs should not be too high if you estimate a price of 10$ per ID which could be valid for 10 years without renewing).

It's just what we Europeans are used to, everyone who wants to vote needs to bring a valid photo ID (usually a passport, personal ID card or driving license) with them and also their government sent voting information card.

I've said some times before that I don't believe that these laws really depress turnout in general or Democratic turnout specifically: For example, Indiana passed a photo-ID law in 2004 or so and yet Obama won the state in 2008 for the first time with record turnout and a huge swing/trend compared with 2004.

If the state provides the relatively cheap free IDs to people who cannot afford them to make elections safer and more transparent, what speaks against such laws ? The only thing that people would have to do is get their ID, which is a task of a few hours. If they are not willing to do this simple task, they are to blame for themselves anyway.

[Tender Branson]

Rasmussen is out with a poll today trying to drum up support for such measures.

They don't need to drum it up. Every single poll shows that Americans by about 70-80% favor photo-ID laws.