I just read this New York Times editorial:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/12/opinion/12mon1.html

Now, I don't want to discuss this particular case too much, as it appears to be plainly unconstitutional. But it got me thinking--what is the harm of requiring some form of ID at the pollsm just to make sure no one messes around with things?

IMO, there's a difference between "requring some form of ID" and requiring a specific ID that costs money to obtain, and which many people would not otherwise need to have except to vote. That's basically the issue all across the country with new laws like this, the Georgia law is just particularly bare-faced in its contempt for the urban poor (nowhere to buy them within the city of Atlanta?!?).

EDIT: If state photo ID cards were made free for all citizens, I'd think a law like this would be OK.

Which they pretty much should do anyway if it becomes more necessary to do things in life.

And I also agree with you on what you said about the Georgia case.

i live in a small town. when i went to the polls, they asked me my name, found it on the list, and then asked me to recite my address. the problem with this is that anyone could use a phone book and find my address and pretend to be me. they also DON'T HIDE THE BOOK, so on the offhand chance that you cannot find a phone book, you can read my address out of the voting registration book.

i am in favor of asking for identification at the polls. school id, driver's license, pretty much anything with your picture and full name that can't be forged will do. but, if you have to pay for an id to use, that's not fair. people won't pay for it if it serves no purpose other than to allow them to vote. some people probably won't be able to pay for it. that's just not right.

I think you should have to present some sort of ID, something as specific as the Georgia thing seems quite idiotic. Drivers license, state id card, SS# plus place of residence seems reasonable.

I find it quite strange that an "elderly adult" wouldn't have some form of identification. There are so many things you need ID for I'm not sure how a productive member of society goes along without one.
I was asked for my ID when I voted last fall..btw.

voting should be as simple a process as is humanly possible.

to me, the only thing making everyone show an id would do is prolong the wait in the inner city precincts even more.

Key paragraph from the cited article:

The Republicans who pushed the law through, and Gov. Sonny Perdue, also a Republican, who signed it, say that it is intended to prevent fraud. But it seems clear that it is about keeping certain people away from the polls, for political advantage. The vast majority of fraud complaints in Georgia, according to its secretary of state, Cathy Cox, involve absentee ballots, which are unaffected by the new law. Ms. Cox says she is unaware of a single documented case in recent years of fraud through impersonation of a voter at the polls.

Maybe I should send you articles about how fucked up the voter fraud was in King County during the last elections.

please do.

Seattletimes.com. Dead people voted, people voted repeatedly, people registered the same day under multiple names..etc etc etc.

how exactly does an id card remedy those things?

Who did they vote for?

Unless you have a lot of fake IDs with the same picture...

dead people shouldn't still be on the rolls in the first place. people shouldn't vote repeatedly because their names should be marked off after the first time they vote. same day registration is an entirely different argument. simply put, people should have to have id to register to vote. at the very least a valid ssn should be required.

with those types of problems i'm willing to guess it was a problem with the people running the election as opposed to individual voters. i don't believe those things are possible without corruption within the county election board or the precincts themselves.

Well, there's that whammy too.

That just means they never get caught. I see no reason why not to have an ID, be it drivers license, state ID, SS card, something. Keep the poor away? If they cared and the photo id requirement is somehow too stringent, they could vote absentee. Isn't a photo id or some other proof required when you sign up for welfare/medicare/SS?

People who don't need at least one picture ID to live, probably aren't going to make an informed decision anyway. They would vote p. diddy. Or dale earnhart jr. Or george lopez. Or jet li. Or jeb bush.

right, broken iris, because everyone knows there are so many people who wait in line for four hours just so they can do it again.

the fraud line is nutty. you've got people voting on machines with no paper trails and career political hacks running elections, yet we're arguing whether the old lady down the road should have to sort through her purse to find a photo id before she's allowed to execute a fundamental right? bleh.

There are a lot of "fundamental rights" that have requirements to them.

yeah, and some even make sense. this one doesn't. it's just a silly distraction.