Progressive Pulse: Political theatre of the absurd
The House Elections Committee meets Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. when discussion over proposed voter ID legislation will continue with election and voting experts.
According to the Raleigh N&O:
VOTER ID PANEL TODAY: The voter ID discussion continues Wednesday with a panel discussion at 1 p.m. in the House Committee on Elections. Those scheduled to speak present an assortment of organizations, some more partisan than the others.
Again, all this discussion without a bill -- in a situation where the details matter. The lineup: Francis X. Deluca, president of the John W. Pope Civitas Institute; Keesha Gaskins, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice; Bob Hall, executive director at Democracy North Carolina; Allison Riggs, staff attorney for voting rights at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice; Hans A. von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at the The Heritage Foundation.
Read more here: http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome
/morning_memo_voter_id_talk_continues_mccrory_job_rating_steady#storylink=cpy\
==================
From Progressive Pulse at Policy Watch
Tuesday’s four-hour public hearing brought residents from across the state to voice both support and opposition to the added voting requirement. For some of the highlights from that hearing, click below:
http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2013/03/12/legislators-get-an-earful-over...
---------------------
Political theatre of the absurd
Conservatives advance voter ID legislation despite powerful opposing arguments and their own ideological flip-flop By Rob Schofield
Conservatives at the General Assembly are advancing legislation again this year that would require every North Carolinian who comes to the polls on Election Day to show a government-issued photo ID in order to vote. It is, of course, an enormously controversial proposal and yesterday, to their partial credit, members of a House Committee actually held a public hearing on the matter in which a number of groups and energetic citizens got a chance to be heard.
Read the entire coverage of yesterday's legislative hearing here:
Tagged:
- Martha Brock's blog
- Login or register to post comments
BlueNC is dedicated to freedom and fairness for the people of North Carolina. If you share that vision, welcome. If your intention is to disrupt our efforts, please find somewhere else to express your opinions.
Like?
Comments
Von Spakovsky
Von Spakovsky is a real piece of shit. He led the costly and useless Bush DOJ search for voter fraud and turned nothing after five years. Bush made him a recess appointment to head the FEC and his own staff wrote a letter opposing his appointment. This guy is a partisan hack and a scumbag of Rovian proportions.
His very appearance in NC signals how vested the Koch's and ALEC are in the movement to subvert democracy in our state. Any Von Spastic claims about the extent of voter fraud will be colossal lies, he spent five years and found nothing, yet he and Karl Rove keep pushing the idea that voter fraud actually exists on a daily basis, contradicting evidence that he himself gathered. Orwellian double think of the highest order.
David Esmay
Voter fraud could come in many ways
Voter fraud could be people that vote more than one time in different states or even in different counties within a state. We've seen a few cases of that, but it's not rampant by any means. Voter fraud could be poll workers/officials changing ballots or having the voting machines rigged. Again, there have been minor incidents of this but nothing has ever been presented that could cause changing the outcome of any election. Voter fraud could be having more people voting in precincts or at polling places than are actually registered there. And yes, there have been minor incidents of this also but never at a level that would change the outcome of any election. Voter fraud could be people voting using the name of someone that is dead. This has happened in a number of circumstances all across our country but it isn't at a level that changes any outcome of any election.
Then, voter fraud could be people that vote that aren't actually registered to vote and people that aren't even legal citizens of America. No one actually knows if this is actually happening and if it is, no one knows what level it is happening. The right says that without actually having "voter ID" it would be impossible to know if this is a rampant problem or if it's just a very insignificant problem. So, Voter ID is needed to know this. Opponents of Voter ID say there's no problem and it's just something being suggested so as to keep minorities from voting.
I see both sides. I'm not quite sure how I believe or which side wins out in my viewpoint.
If you search for the background and context of Voter ID
the cart is clearly before the horse. Voter ID is part of a political agenda pushed by groups like ALEC and AFP. Once their plan was in place, it was easy enough to fabricate stories to make their case.
We're preparing to spend many millions of dollars to spread the reach of Big Brother. And even with all of that money, the most generally accepted risk of voter fraud (absentee balloting) will go completely unaddressed. On the low end, we can expect NC's costs to exceed $20 million on ID cards alone. The back end systems to track and monitor could easily double or triple that cost.
Nothing comes without a cost. Voter ID will be one of the most expensive solutions to a negligible problem in the history of our state. Lawsuits alone will keep NC attorneys in business for decades.
What amount of taxpayer dollars would you want to spend on this? How many teachers would you be willing to fire to get a system that, even at its best, will still fail to deliver 100% certainty?
Good questions
I can't answer the questions you've raised here James. I wish there was a magic wand that would make our voter system perfect. No one wants their vote to be negated by someone that votes illegally or votes multiple times for a candidate they oppose. Each person's vote is important and taking away even one person's vote is wrong.
I wish I had the answer.
Evidence
Where's the evidence of voter fraud? There is none, it is only baseless conjecture by the right, and nothing more. They have not presented one shred of verifiable evidence. The only incidences of fraud where perpetuated by the GOP in the last election. www.opb.org/news/article/clackamas-woman-indicted-for-voter-fraud/
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-11-02/politics/35504184_1_nathan...
David Esmay
The academic "Voter Fraud / ID debate is interesting, but......
The merits, or problems with Voter ID has nothing to do with the actual reason, or motivation the Republicans are going to institute Voter ID in NC.
Establishing Voter ID in North Carolina disinfranchises hundreds of thousands of North Carolinian elderly, minorities and the poor (Who normally vote Democrat).
Republicans cannot compete on the merits anymore. They need to rig the game. Democracy is the enemy of the Republican Party in North Carolina and Nationwide.
Debating the merits and not calling it what it is,
(Rigging the Vote) is simply playing into the Republican agenda.
We need to confront and out the Republican Party on their "War Against the Right to Vote".
In truth their are no merits to debate here.
Marshall Adame
Voter-id is politics
Just good ol' fashioned politics. The Republicans pass voter-id and then the Democrats can run against it. "Vote for me and I will repeal voter-id!" It will be a good rallying cry for both sides. Voter-id stirs the flames of passion on both sides. I doubt very seriously it will affect the number of people who vote.
This bill is moving along slowly
WRAL.com has a good report and video on this issue. I am new here so do not know if links from your average person in the discussion "work" here, but will post this one anyway: http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol/video/12202756/#/vid12202756
I learned some things from this report/video. One thing is that currently, 30 states have some form of Voter ID in place. I encourage people to go to that site.