5 ms·

The reason is that we don't have any universal ID and some people think requiring an ID is a burden on exercising your rights. Others like you worry that, with

The reason is that we don't have any universal ID and some people think requiring an ID is a burden on exercising your rights. Others like you worry that, without ID, there will be lots of fraud. I keep hearing that there is not very much fraud, but I don't know how they know without a baseline that's verified with ID. I also don't know why voter ID is too much of a burden, but IDs for gun purchases are not. If they are both rights shouldn't they have similar standards for checking eligibility?

standardUser 7y ago
I don't know how you imagine voting works, but there are in fact records. You can't vote unless you are registered. The specifics varies wildly state-to-state, making it hard to discuss in detail. But the gist of it is that if you are not legally eligible to vote, it's difficult to do so. And the penalties are so extreme that casting a single fraudulent vote is absurdly risky, making it a very unappealing crime. Especially since virtually zero elections are decided by so few votes. Elections are audited and fraud is found in only very, very rare cases, hence the widespread confidence that voter fraud is a minuscule issue. Other election issues are very real. By any metric, the number of eligible voters who are denied the right to vote dwarfs the number of people who cast ineligible votes.
- jeffdavis 7y ago
  How do you audit without IDs? Like, why not just find some dead person who is still registered, and vote in their stead? And how do they verify citizenship, or other elligibility requirements? Can you just specify a bugus address so they don't catch you?
drak0n1c 7y ago
Thankfully, recent lawsuits are at least forcing counties that notoriously have more registered voters than they have age 18+ citizens to clean up their voter registrations. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/06/20/calif_begins_removing_5_million_inactive_voters_on_its_rolls__140602.html https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/06/20/calif_...

standardUser 7y ago

I don't know how you imagine voting works, but there are in fact records. You can't vote unless you are registered. The specifics varies wildly state-to-state, making it hard to discuss in detail. But the gist of it is that if you are not legally eligible to vote, it's difficult to do so. And the penalties are so extreme that casting a single fraudulent vote is absurdly risky, making it a very unappealing crime. Especially since virtually zero elections are decided by so few votes. Elections are audited and fraud is found in only very, very rare cases, hence the widespread confidence that voter fraud is a minuscule issue. Other election issues are very real. By any metric, the number of eligible voters who are denied the right to vote dwarfs the number of people who cast ineligible votes.

jeffdavis 7y ago
How do you audit without IDs? Like, why not just find some dead person who is still registered, and vote in their stead? And how do they verify citizenship, or other elligibility requirements? Can you just specify a bugus address so they don't catch you?

drak0n1c 7y ago

Thankfully, recent lawsuits are at least forcing counties that notoriously have more registered voters than they have age 18+ citizens to clean up their voter registrations. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/06/20/calif_begins_removing_5_million_inactive_voters_on_its_rolls__140602.html https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/06/20/calif_...