Editor,
Replying to Scott Abramson’s Jan. 25 letter, the issue is not an either/or situation. We need both voting rights for all citizens and voting integrity for all elections. Yes, it’s critical for election workers to quickly be able to determine eligibility and voter ID is one very valid way and, yes, a state driver’s license should be fine. What to do then with all voters who don’t have one? Currently, only about 89% of U.S. adults do.
Would you support a national photo ID, provided free of charge by the U.S. government? I do. If so, then unnecessary burdens must not be placed on voters to obtain one. There should, for example be voter ID photo trucks traveling throughout the United States, including all Native American reservations.
One reason that voter ID laws have been deprecated in the past is because some states use them to disenfranchise voters rather than help voters and honest elections. For example, some states exclude forms of ID in a discriminatory manner. Texas allows concealed weapons permits for voting, but does not accept student ID cards. Until its voter ID law was struck down, North Carolina prohibited public assistance IDs and state employee ID cards, which are disproportionately held by Black voters. And, until recently, Wisconsin permitted active duty military ID cards, but prohibited Veterans Affairs ID cards for voting.
As you can see, it’s not a simple issue … but a free national voter ID card could easily fix it.
Larry Kistler
Belmont
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(3) comments
Thanks for your detailed and thoughtful post about Voter IDs. Once someone is registered to vote, perhaps using a photo ID as part of the process, how do you feel about voting by mail the way we've been doing it here in our county. One thing that is causing massive problems in Georgia right now is their new law requiring you to list the ID that you used to register on your current ballot application. Folks who registered to vote 20 years ago are supposed to list the ID number from that ID. Half of Georgia ballot applications have been rejected so far, because so many people either don't remember which ID they used 20 years ago or the ID # has changed. So..... perhaps it is one thing to require some form of ID to register, but what impact does that have on actual voting. Lots to think about!
But, Mr. Kistler, what ID will be used to obtain a free national voter ID card? Won’t we run into the same issue that we have now – excluding forms of ID in a discriminatory manner? We can’t use driver’s licenses because a number of states allow non-citizens to obtain driver’s licenses. If we can’t fix the root cause, spending taxpayer money to provide a “free” ID card is just a waste of money. Of course, this is the government…
Some form of voter ID is essential to the integrity of our voting system. This is not a difficult thing to do. The government could issue a voter ID to everyone when they register to vote. Why do Democrats oppose this?
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