Friday, April 14, 2017

Democracy Wins Again: Courts Still Rejecting Discriminatory Voter ID Laws

Click Here for Interactive Map - Link Also in the Post Below


Update on the following – posted at various times (those links are at the end of this post).
Introduction: This is a great research site with state-by-state interactive map – do your own search and bookmark it for future reference [click your state or other one for good info] here from Ballotpedia. 
July 29, 2016 - the Washington Post here. 
January 23, 2017 - Reuters here.
April 11, 2017 - The Wall Street Journal here.
Still the “go-to” site for the whole voter fraud issue ginned up mostly by the GOP far right zealots is here from the Brennan Center at NYU.
Voter ID laws in mostly RED states and it’s a weak cover for voter suppression.
FYI: People are 3,615 times more likely to report a UFO sighting than they are to commit in-person voter impersonation, according to national data.
A few facts regarding the GOP argument that voter ID laws prevent fraud:
Wisconsin: The non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice at NYU found only seven cases of voter fraud out of 3 million votes cast in Wisconsin during 2004, which amount to a fraud rate of 0.0002 percent.” Republicans in WI at the time and many since continue to say there was much more. Plus, this: all seven of those cases involved persons with felony convictions who were not eligible to vote after being released from prison and they thought their right to vote still existed.  
Another example came during the Bush years: After an extensive probe from 2002-07, the DOJ found out of 300 million votes cast only 86 were fraudulent, and most of them again, felons, or a few immigrants ignorant of voting law and thought they were eligible to vote.
Some argue that we “Must show an ID to fly, to drive, or to buy beer, so why not to vote.” I say as simple as possible: That is a red herring. Those licenses are not constitutional rights – voting is a constitutional right all things being equal, age, address, residency, etc., no one should be deprived of that right over proving who they are or their right to vote.
In short: This is a GOP solution seeking a false or bogus problem, or as they like to say these days, “a fake” problem.
The striking statistic has surfaced at the same time as the news that a new voter ID law in Pennsylvania could render nearly 10 percent of the state's residents ineligible to vote in the presidential election this fall.
Mother Jones assembled the numbers in order to fact-check claims by many Republican lawmakers that their states are facing rampant voter fraud.
1.  Since 2011, 24 voting restrictions have passed in 17 states. This fall, new laws could affect more than 5 million voters in states representing 179 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency, Mother Jones reports.
2. Studies indicate low-income and minority voters are most often disenfranchised by laws requiring voters to have government-issued photo IDs. For example, 25 percent of voting-age African-Americans don't have valid IDs.
Put the 13 confirmed cases of voter impersonation into perspective this way:
1.  Each year, 15 Americans are crushed to death by their furniture or televisions.
2.  Fourteen are injured by exploding toilets, and 100 are accidentally set on fire by their doctors during surgery.
3.  Americans are 3 million times more likely to have a favorable view of North Korea than to commit voter fraud.
4.  In PA: The fake and phony voter ID / voter fraud issue continues, apparently unchecked.
5.  Assume this classic case of 93-year old grandmother, Viviette Applewhite, who lives in PA. She had voted for over 50 years but for a while could not since she can't meet the new state voter ID requirement. She like millions of Americans of her generation, and many others, do not have a birth certificate, which is the main new requirement to get a new voter ID. Imagine she were your mother, grandmother, or great grandmother.
Below is list of my previous posts related to this critical subject. Some of the links therein may be broken no longer active – if so, I’m sorry in advance):

This is the most-critical issue of our time ... it speaks directly to the most-cherished right we have: The right to vote for the government we want, and not the kind some choose or want for us.

Thanks for stopping by.

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