HJR 48, aka voter ID, was voted out of committee this afternoon 5-4, on a party-line vote.
There were no witnesses to testify in favor of the resolution. The room was packed with people who testified against -- so many in fact that not everyone was able to testify in the hearing that was cut short by the start of today's legislative session.
I had hoped that someone might come forward to explain what the urgency is for passage of this particular resolution. No one could come up with a single example of this type of voter fraud in Missouri. Bottom line -- there is very little evidence to support the proposition that voter fraud is a real issue that needs to be addressed.
I know these things should not surprise me anymore, but I was shocked at the hostile reaction and insensitive comments a few of the Republican senators had in response to the opposition witnesses. Most of the Rs did not stick around for the testimony, but one senator in particular was in the room long enough to express his opinion that people should just "get off their duffs" and get a photo ID. That comment came on the heels of testimony from Kathleen Weinschenk, a Boone county resident in a wheelchair, who gave compelling testimony about the difficulties that disabled Missourians face when trying to track down the stack of documents required to secure a photo ID.
Maybe the proponents of this resolution should just get off their duffs and come up with one good reason why we should continue to waste time and money discussing a solution for a problem that does not exist. Voter fraud is a "problem" manufactured by those who would seek to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of people from their most fundamental right -- the right to vote.
Monday, May 12, 2008
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7 comments:
Do you remember the word "ACORN"?
That's all you got? "ACORN?" And didn't they get nailed for that? 124,000,000 people cast votes in the last US Presidential election. give me a break! I'm a physically able individual and I had to make 3stops and half a day to get a new license. And My old photo license wasn't one of the documents I could use. We have wasted such a disproportionate amount of time on this issue it is getting really sad. If we had spent as much energy and time on developing technology for clean coal plants over the past 9 years instead of this issue....Mike L
I think that a more accurate statments regarding voter fraud is that no one can truly know how much, if any, voter fraud is occuring since the current law does not have an adequate means in which to track the votes cast.
Voter fraud is an issue that the government should take steps to ensure does not occur. My fundamental right to vote, as guaranteed by the Missouri and United States Constitution, should not be infringed upon by someone who has no right to vote, or by someone who wants to vote twice.
Wasn't there a study not too long ago that found one instance of actual voter fraud (which is different from ACORN and petition fraud). Some guy voted absentee and then tried to vote at the polls?
I think the fact that he was caught shows that voter fraud provisions already work.
More personally, I just had to renew my license and it took over 3 months to track down my certified birth certificate. I can't imagine what would have happened if this law was in place and a vote occured at the same time I was waiting for the GOVERNMENT to send me my birth certificate so i could vote for the government.
This is just another Republican shell game. ELECTION fraud is the real problem, NOT VOTER fraud. I know several elderly people who do not have a photo id and who would be unable to produce an actual birth certificate to obtain an official ID. Why don't the Republicans do away with the machines to vote and take us back to hand counted paper ballots? Answer: They can't cheat as easily with HCPB's! Why do they bother to send Voter ID cards to us if they are not going to be usable at the polls? Thanks, Jolie, for bringing this to the attention of Missourians!
off you duff indeed. this story details how the R's try to win elections
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/051308b.html
I find it very interesting that the R's are all worried about a non-existan problem-voter fraud- and yet not interested at all in the proven and complete accessibility to fraud with electronic voting machines-which are owned, inspected, 'copyrited' and programed by ardent R supporters. Even 25 cent slot machine programs have to accessable to inspection by state authority without notification! But not the machines we vote on ! We have turned our entire voting process over to corporations who program the machines we use, count the votes on them and then tell us who won - for the first time in American history! The people who do care, who have investigated and tried to bring it to the forefront of our conscousness are few and far between. When Princeton, NYU and other respected universities had done just that, the majority of the media and press as well as voters have given it little thought or exposure.
It's called 'distraction' from important issues when the R's bring up "voter fraud" and "taking our guns away", etc. And why are we still falling for it? Why aren't we ALL sticking up for those disavantaged, the disabled and elderly on this issue of voter ID's as being rediculous-it should be a non-partisan issue, that all citizens have their right to vote as sacrosanct. Instead the R's are using yet another 'scare' tactic and being devisive-because it is the only way they have been able to win elections and pass off their feeble and dishonorable governing. It's time for ALL D's and I's (Dems and Independents) to get righteously and loudly angry!
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