4 ms·
Thank you for illustrating the point. ID requirements were never "eliminated". In-person voting still requires some form of ID, your polling place is defined by
by ttfkam 3y ago
Thank you for illustrating the point. ID requirements were never "eliminated". In-person voting still requires some form of ID, your polling place is defined by your established place of residence, and anyone trying to submit another ballot in someone else's spot or trying to vote twice would immediately be flagged. Absentee ballots all have serial numbers (just look for yourself at the next election!), which are not just used to find duplicates during vote tallies but also when ballots that shouldn't exist are being submitted.
The heightened ID requirements don't increase election security because fraud is already very rare. They do however disproportionately affect communities where folks were born at home rather than a hospital (a whole racist history in that nugget) and other folks where the name on their birth certificate doesn't match their current name—which affected many married women. Getting that ID also typically cost money and time getting the necessary documentation, bus fare, and lost wages. So without reducing fraud, folks with less money, people of color, and women are statistically less likely to be able to vote in the election: all demographics that are less likely to vote Republican. Quelle surprise!
As for the Mueller Report, tell me you've never read the report without telling me you've never read the report. If you had, you would know it was clearly and forcefully stated that the ONLY reason no charges were recommended on the Executive Branch was because it was DOJ policy not to and that the gathered evidence should be taken up by Congress. That's it. The evidence was there; it was merely DOJ policy to not prosecute a sitting president. (Why yes, I have in fact read the entire report.)
This information was then passed to Congress, where the House voted to impeach (the first time). The Republicans in the Senate, however, refused to allow witnesses in the impeachment trial and voted largely on party lines regardless of evidence.
> On January 31, after a planned debate session, the Senate voted against allowing subpoenas to call witnesses, including former national security advisor John Bolton (who wrote in his forthcoming book mentioning Ukraine aid freezing) or documents with a 51–49 vote. 51 Republican senators voted against calling witnesses, while 45 Democratic senators, two independents who typically voted Democratic, and two Republicans (Mitt Romney and Susan Collins) voted for witnesses.
https://archive.today/20200201193640/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/us/politics/trump-bolton-book-ukraine.html https://archive.today/20200201193640/https://www.nytimes.com...
So yeah, "Grand Canyon".
- Georgelemental 3y ago> In-person voting still requires some form of ID Don't know about you, but my deep-blue US county has never asked me for squat any time I've gone to vote. (In contrast, when I vote in French elections, my photo ID is checked three times by three different people. As far as I know this requirement has never caused any political controversy whatsoever.) > The heightened ID requirements don't increase election security because fraud is already very rare. "The conclusion is speculative." I'm not saying it definitely made a difference, just that it's reasonable to argue it might have (for example, maybe fraud only appears rare because lack of ID ensures it goes uncaught.) Personally, I highly doubt it affected national results. > This information was then passed to Congress, where the House voted to impeach (the first time). The first impeachment alleged improper behavior regarding Trump's communication with the Ukrainian government. Russian collusion didn't even come into it.
- ttfkam 3y agoThe rules are set by the state, but my deep-blue state (California) and every county I've lived in has requested ID, that I say my name, and at least one other person has verified that I match and reside in the precinct. Nevertheless this is aside from the fact that after I arrived, my name was crossed off. If I returned later or someone else arrived to claim my ballot, it would clearly be detected. And that's the point, right? In-person voter fraud—the only kind of voter fraud that stricter ID requirements would address—is already profoundly difficult to do undetected. So it's not really speculative. Unlike common right-wing claims over the last decade, two million+ extra ballots would not just go unnoticed. Undocumented immigrants can't just show up en masse at random polling places and expect to submit a ballot. It's not enough to just assert widespread voter fraud exists but is somehow currently undetectable. Show us your evidence. I and others have absolutely no argument against election security and the prevention of misconduct. Speaking for myself, I simply take exception to decreasing access to suffrage due to specious claims of malfeasance. Isn't the best case scenario to have as many citizens taking part in the electoral process as possible? Voter fraud detracts from that goal just as much as overzealous restrictions. Republican. Democrat. Independent. I don't care. I want every citizen's vote tallied.