Another Post on Voter ID
Tgirsch has posted on the lack of a need for Voter ID laws. After telling us how rare voter fraud is, he says,
….requiring a photo ID to vote could disenfranchise nearly 10% of the eligible population, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. In other words, it would potentially inhibit 1,000,000 times as many legitimate voters as fraudulent voters.
I have never understood this argument. Is there really 10% of the population out there that doesn’t have a photo ID? Also, if an ID was provided for them, free of charge, would this not take care of that concern? Everybody needs some form of picture ID to exist in modern society. You can’t even buy a six pack without an ID, much less cash a welfare check. You can’t tell me that among that 10% he is citing, none of those people buy beer.
I do agree with the following paragraph though.
If you’re worried about the integrity of our elections, the much bigger fish is computerized voting. Even ignoring the potential for fraud and abuse at the machine level, the machines are simply more prone to errors than the individual voter fraud rate.
He is exactly right. I can not understand why we trust computerized voting. Elections are much too important to not have a paper trail.
I suspect that it’s not so much that nearly 10% of eligible voters don’t have a photo ID; many of them don’t, of course, but in many cases, their photo ID doesn’t match the information on their voter registration (e.g., because of a move not yet reflected on the ID).
And I don’t think the “free ID” thing really cuts it. It’s not just about cost. It’s about hassle. Here in West Tennessee, it typically takes nearly three hours to obtain a photo ID, just because of lines and wait times. And that’s assuming you can easily get to one of the three BMV centers in the entire county that actually issues them, which isn’t easy to do for many who are poor, elderly, or both. (And those are the groups that are hardest hit by voter ID requirements.)
Another thing that factors in is a general mistrust of authority that is still prevalent among older, particularly Southern African-Americans who lived through segregation and its aftermath. It’s easy to underestimate how many of them will go out of their way to avoid contact with government authorities. I suspect the same is true of legal Hispanic immigrants today. This is why you’ll often see the cynical voter-suppression tactic of putting out an increased police presence in predominantly minority voting precincts — the justification is to “protect the peace,” but this generally simply discourages people from coming out to vote at all. Again, if you haven’t lived through it (or don’t know someone who has), it’s very easy to underestimate how profound this effect can be.
The bottom line is, unless you want to live in a police state, you shouldn’t have to show your ID to exercise a basic right of citizenship, unless the state can provide a compelling reason for needing to see one. Given that voter fraud of the type that could be prevented by a photo ID check is so rare, I don’t see a compelling case for requiring a photo ID to vote.
Another thing: I think you underestimate how easy it is to get by without a current photo ID, especially for the elderly. Many states don’t require ID for alcohol purchases if a person appears to be older than 30 or 35. Once you’ve established a bank account, you can do all of your deposits and withdrawals at an ATM, without ever seeing a teller face-to-face. If you pay for in-person purchases with cash, you’re never asked for an ID. So it’s entirely possible to have someone who allowed their state-issued photo ID to expire, and never bothered to renew it, simply because they don’t need to, and (as I mentioned above), it’s an incredible hassle.
If it is a hassle to get the free ID, I can guarantee that the Democratic party will send a van out to pick these folks up. Btw, everytime I have voted in Cheatham County, I have had to show an ID. Isn’t it already a requirement in most places?
You mention West Tennessee. If there ever was an example of a place that this type of fraud might be happening, I would say it was Memphis.
Well, see, that’s the problem. It “seems” like voter fraud happens all over the place, but anywhere it’s ever been investigated, it turns out not to be the case. It does happen, but only in vanishingly rare cases.
Also, as I wrote on my updated blog entry, I voted in the primary and asked a poll worker about voting without a photo ID. There’s no photo ID requirement in Tennessee. They’ll ask for ID because it speeds the process for those who have it, but a voter registration card is considered sufficient, and that has no photo. And you can even cast a provisional ballot without that. You can see Tennessee’s voting (along with every other state’s) requirements here.
Again, you ignore several aspects of the hassle of getting an ID. It’s not just about getting there, it’s about how much time it takes. Given the CF that it is now just imagine how bad it would be if they started (A) giving them out for free, and (B) requiring everyone to have them.
Finally, think about what such a measure would cost. You’re a guy who hates government spending. Why create a big pork project like this that solves a “problem” that for all intents and purposes simply doesn’t exist?