Gov. Strickland rails against "shameful" GOP voter-suppression laws

[Sbane]

The Strickland statement seems to be an assertion backed up by nothing. As long as one can get an ID for free and conveniently, I am not impressed with the Dems' argument that a penny's worth of suppression of ineligible voters costs a dollar's worth of suppression of legitimate voters. It seems more of a talking point to rile up the Dem base.

Can you get an ID for free in Ohio? Or in Pennsylvania for that matter?

[Sbane]

I'd be curious to hear from our Canadian posters. There is a voter ID law there and if it has a disparate impact on minorities or seniors there should be some data from Canada to use in comparison.

I'm curious about this as well, also the dynamics of how this ID is obtained and any laws governing provisional balloting in Canada.

As far as I know, all provinces have health insurance cards with pictures.

And as I understand voters are required to show that, though there are back up procedures for voters who don't have their card at the polls. Is that so different from what PA has passed?

I don't think requiring ID is all that burdensome, especially after the first time. One thing we must keep in mind though is that not everyone has a drivers license. Growing up in suburban California, that is almost unthinkable, but is certainly the case in big cities with good public transport. So NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago perhaps and San Francisco/Oakland. For them new voter ID laws are burdensome, and could suppress the vote, but will only do so for a couple of cycles at the most as people get used to the law. So we must balance that against how much voter fraud there is going on currently...which as far as I know is not really a big concern anywhere. Another scenario I can think of is that the ID cards could be used as a way to harass voters by saying "this doesn't look like you". I can definitely see this happening to Blacks where a Republican poll worker could figure he could help his party by refusing to let vote any Blacks (maybe Hispanics in a wonderful place like AZ) whose ID photo might not be crystal clear.

I think registration requirements are much more of a burden than voting ID. There really needs to be universal registration of eligible citizens. Are you in favor of that Muon?

[Sbane]

I'd be curious to hear from our Canadian posters. There is a voter ID law there and if it has a disparate impact on minorities or seniors there should be some data from Canada to use in comparison.

I'm curious about this as well, also the dynamics of how this ID is obtained and any laws governing provisional balloting in Canada.

As far as I know, all provinces have health insurance cards with pictures.

And as I understand voters are required to show that, though there are back up procedures for voters who don't have their card at the polls. Is that so different from what PA has passed?

I don't think requiring ID is all that burdensome, especially after the first time. One thing we must keep in mind though is that not everyone has a drivers license. Growing up in suburban California, that is almost unthinkable, but is certainly the case in big cities with good public transport. So NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago perhaps and San Francisco/Oakland. For them new voter ID laws are burdensome, and could suppress the vote, but will only do so for a couple of cycles at the most as people get used to the law. So we must balance that against how much voter fraud there is going on currently...which as far as I know is not really a big concern anywhere. Another scenario I can think of is that the ID cards could be used as a way to harass voters by saying "this doesn't look like you". I can definitely see this happening to Blacks where a Republican poll worker could figure he could help his party by refusing to let vote any Blacks (maybe Hispanics in a wonderful place like AZ) whose ID photo might not be crystal clear.

I think registration requirements are much more of a burden than voting ID. There really needs to be universal registration of eligible citizens. Are you in favor of that Muon?

I don't think I need to be. I get sent a voter's card now in IL. It lists my address and polling place, but has nothing else to identify me. Asking the person when they register if they need a picture voter's ID if they don't have a driver's license is no more difficult than asking drivers if they want to register to vote under motor voter laws.

So in Illinois the government sends you the voter registration form...if I am reading that correctly? Yes, there are many ways of making sure voters can easily get a voter ID. I guess the question is whether these states imposing these laws are also making it easier to get a valid ID. And in any case my bigger gripe is with registration laws than with voter ID laws.