I never hesitate to criticize my home state for the outright stupidity and corruption our politicians and voters engage in, so today I’ll take a minute to note something we mostly do right: In order to vote, you have to present photo ID.
That seems like a painfully obvious thing to do, but in quite a few states, they just take your word for it. This opens the door wide for the type of fraud in which ACORN routinely engages. We can put a stop to it, and we must.
Louisiana unfortunately provides a loophole – present other information as proof and sign an affidavit and you get to cast a regular, not a provisional, ballot. A poll commissioner can challenge the voter, however, I wasn’t able to find any record of that actually happening. Doubtless that’s why ACORN focused some of their efforts here until they were “aggressively” challenged and gave up, another good move on Louisiana’s part.
The argument that it unfairly burdens the disabled and elderly to show photo ID doesn’t wash because to apply for and collect Social Security or Social Security Disablity you must not only show a photo ID but birth certificate and proof of citizenship. People overwhelmingly support having to show photo ID when you vote. That’s why this map (based on data from this website) is so perplexing:
Map of voter ID requirements by state
Two weeks from today, we’ll probably still be counting and contesting votes, given the amount of voter registration fraud and early voting fraud we already know about. But the die will be cast and one way or another, we’ll have a new President. But this is a state issue, and it’s time we bring pressure to bear on our state representatives to fix it.
Those state representatives tend to be local business people who are trying to get their foot in the door for higher level politics, maybe just wanted to make valuable connections with the movers and shakers to increase their business or even just pump up their “civic service” resume. After the election, contact your state rep and tell him you would like him to sponsor a bill that requires photo ID to vote, and waives the cost of a photo ID. Doing these things will help:
- Provide information on voter registration fraud and voting fraud in your state, and statistics on how popular an idea this is nationwide. (It doesn’t have to be comprehensive, just supporting data for the common sense argument.)
- Provide lists of all the other daily activities that you have to provide photo ID for (writing checks, completing a I-9 form when you get a job, etc.), and of the government services which require photo ID.
- Provide copies of the legislation for states which already require photo ID so he can essentially just copy and paste.
- Create a website with an online petition form and buy a domain name to point to it and spread the word. This takes about ten minutes and it’s free – blogger.com; wordpress.com, etc. Online petitions are meaningless in terms of legality, but they are a way to start getting people involved, and you can build up a mailing list to keep them involved. The blog should also include the contact information for your state representatives – encourage people to let them know they’re in favor of this.
- Create a Cafepress or other online store to sell tee shirts and bumper stickers; link the blog to it. You’re not going to make any real money here, but it’s a way to promote the cause without going out of pocket.
Your state level representation can be pressured to do the right thing, and when the issue is something that 77% of people polled believe is a good idea, he will see that it’s in his own best interest to do this. To paraphrase James 4:2 and brutally rip it out of context 
– if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
Demand that your vote be protected from dilution by voter fraud. Demand a photo ID requirement to vote.
