READER COMMENTS ON

"Previously Legal WI Voters Turned Away at Polls Tuesday as GOP's New Photo ID Restrictions Begin"

(26 Responses so far...)





COMMENT #1 [Permalink]

... hardline said on 2/23/2012 @ 3:41 pm PT...





If you're not smart enough to get a valid I.D. and carry it to the polls then you have no business voting. The issues typically voted on are far more complex than the process of obtaining a picture I.D. Those that advocate for easy, non-verifiable voter registration desire ignorant voters, and rampant fraud, enabling big money to infleuence outcomes rather than allowing well thought out ideas to florish.

COMMENT #2 [Permalink]

... Madison VOICES said on 2/23/2012 @ 5:00 pm PT...





hardhead (or whatever) above is being disengenuous at best - no surprise that he wants to make this about some type of voter "test". The party he probably supports in Wisconsin literally stole money from the widows and orphans of solders who gave their lives serving our nation. Walker's aides, with walker's help, stole money from a support group to pay for walker's website and take vacations in exotic place with their homosexual live-in boyfriend. Even worse, the 2 had gay child porn on their computers! For the latest in fitzwalkerstan antics, please visit our Web or new blog and tv channel. You may have seen this, the husband of walker's lieutenant governor whom I have personally seen drunk and staggering into the assembly chamber to vote (illegal in Wisconsin) is committing vote fraud himself! Must see video Too bad the above commentator won't apply the same standards to the other side - he thinks voters need to pass a phony IQ test by jumping through hoops to participate in our democracy and most-likely supports repugs voting while drunk on major bills (in this case, it was the mining bill!) Keep up the good work on election fraud.

COMMENT #3 [Permalink]

... Mike Leon said on 2/23/2012 @ 5:19 pm PT...





Now, a federal complaint need not make a facial challenge to Wisconsin's voter obstruction (voter impersonation as you point out) law. See Brennan Center: "future (federal) challenges to voter laws must be filed with respect to the application of a specific law—after its controversial mandates are already applied in an election,"

http://www.brennancenter...uphold_indiana_voter_id/ This law is so blatantly unonstitutional that I think even the corrupt 4-3 majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court will have to enjoin the law as voting in Wisconsin is extremely well-protected under Wisconsin Constitutional law, upholding law would cause them to look even more foolish than they do now. So, in both state and federal court, we are looking good. As for Hardline's comment, I suggest you read up on the difference between voter registration and poll ID requirements. If I may suggest:

http://malcontends.blogs...-reality-overlooked.html

COMMENT #4 [Permalink]

... tmm said on 2/23/2012 @ 5:25 pm PT...





LOL @ hardline's comments. "Rampant fraud"! Where? In the deluded fantasyland where ACORN got Obama elected? And those "complex issues"! Hilarious - you do realize it's a pres primary? "Which of these clowns do I hate least" is not complex to most of us. How does the "big money" bit have anything to do w/ turning away legal voters who've voted for decades? Weere you looking for a Citizens United thread?

COMMENT #5 [Permalink]

... Big Dan said on 2/23/2012 @ 6:00 pm PT...





IRONY ALERT: Comment #1 says only smart people should vote. I guess that leaves him out, because he misspelled "influence" and "flourish", and furthermore probably has spell checker.

COMMENT #6 [Permalink]

... Ernest A. Canning said on 2/23/2012 @ 6:08 pm PT...





hardline @1 wrote: If you're not smart enough to get a valid I.D. and carry it to the polls then you have no business voting Fact: Intelligence has nothing to do with it. In its federal lawsuit challenging the WI photo ID law, the ACLU identified six categories of WI residents who lack the requisite form of photo ID mandated by the statute and who face severe, and at times, impossible burdens. This included 84-year old Ruthelle Frank, who voted in every election since 1948 and was a member of the Brokaw Village Board but cannot get the GOP approved official state photo ID. She was born at home, without a birth certificate, and will be forced to pay $20 to get one in order to get her supposedly "free" ID to vote. But even that may not be enough. Frank recently learned she may not be able to comply with the state GOP's Photo ID restriction unless she coughs up upwards of $200 to amend the Register of Deeds record of her home, which had misspelled her maiden name. Hardline writes: Those that advocate for easy, non-verifiable voter registration desire...rampant voter fraud. Fact: There is only one form of "voter fraud" that can be prevented by polling place photo ID laws --- in person impersonation. That form of "voter fraud" is virtually non-existent. As Loyola Law Prof. Justice Levitt noted in written testimony before the U.S. Senate, since 2000, there were "nine allegations of votes [in general elections] that might have involved votes cast by individuals impersonating others," but those nine may be the result of "poll worker error or voter confusion...During the same period, 400 million votes were cast...Even assuming that each of the nine votes were fraudulent, that amounts to a relevant fraud rate of 0.000002 percent. Americans are struck and killed by lightning more often." Polling place photo ID has been pushed by Republicans, like convicted felon Charlie White, for one reason only. Photo ID will have a disparate impact on the right for minorities, the poor and the elderly to vote --- that is on those who are not likely to vote for the Party of the One Percent aka the GOP.

COMMENT #7 [Permalink]

... Soul Rebel said on 2/23/2012 @ 8:57 pm PT...





The Voter ID laws are a new tax! Hopefully the people like the Veteran pictured will - if they were (R) - realize that the (R) serve nobody but the ultra-rich and their corporate masters. The (R) could do themselves in over this...everybody'll know somebody who gets caught up in this.

COMMENT #8 [Permalink]

... novenator said on 2/24/2012 @ 3:56 am PT...





Conservative politicians hate democracy, and are doing everything in their power to suppress it.

COMMENT #9 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 2/24/2012 @ 4:14 am PT...





Indiana is no newcomer to sneaky snake laws. Indiana Congressional District 9 snaked through parts of 20 counties before the 2010 census. Can you imagine contesting a House election where you had to contest it in portions of 20 counties, or deal with the precincts in portions of 20 counties (I need the voting records of only parts of 20 county election clerks)? And that is not the worst part of the debacle. My guess is that Indiana politicians will try to make their gerrymandering worse, not better.

COMMENT #10 [Permalink]

... WDRussell said on 2/24/2012 @ 5:50 am PT...





These states are telling people that they have to prove themself innocent of voter fraud.

That goes against the most basic section of our judicial system.

A person is NEVER required to prove themself innocent.

COMMENT #11 [Permalink]

... donn witherspoon said on 2/24/2012 @ 7:45 am PT...





I have been in VA hospitals on and off for over 30 years. I have met multiple veterans who cannot drive due to wounds received in service. To deny a veteran with a government issued valid ID just shows that the Republicans know they cannot win a a fair election. So they do all they can to remove the folks that would vote against them. It is a shame any veteran is treated this way. I wonder how many Republican legislators that voted for this are veterans.

COMMENT #12 [Permalink]

... Seb Stenjem said on 2/24/2012 @ 8:26 am PT...





Another thing that should be remembered. The DMV, where one can get an ID, was not required to tell you that your ID would be free. Instead, if you failed to check the box, they then charged you for it. And they also closed DMV offices or at least reduced the hours of operation.

They have allowed a few more ID forms, but it's still a very select few. This suprising they let this group slip. MANY of them support the spoiled little Rich boys. Maybe they think corporate $ and redistricting will be enough?

COMMENT #13 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 2/24/2012 @ 8:40 am PT...





Wisconsin's District 3 goes through all or part of 20 counties. WI is no piker at gerrymandering or vote suppression.

COMMENT #14 [Permalink]

... JerryW said on 2/24/2012 @ 10:13 am PT...





This vet chose to make an issue of the VA card. He had a valid drivers license and wouldn't use it. It was his way of getting 15 minutes of fame.

COMMENT #15 [Permalink]

... GREG O said on 2/24/2012 @ 8:03 pm PT...





If the new voter ID laws pass muster with the Supreme Corp, how about some new voter IQ requirements?

COMMENT #16 [Permalink]

... Dredd said on 2/25/2012 @ 5:05 am PT...





I like Greg O's term "the Supreme Corp" ...

COMMENT #17 [Permalink]

... vikingrn said on 2/25/2012 @ 6:38 am PT...





@hardline. Intelligence has nothing to do with access to the polls. Voter ID is a(as are most GOP ideas)solution in search of a problem. The veteran depicted in this story had a valid ID. THe reality is that these laws marginalize students and others on the fringes of society. My mother obtained a passport last year at age 73. Her birth certificate was (deliberately) misspelled by the Doctor at birth. She eventually got a passport but it took months worth of work to obtain. If she had been required to get a MN photo ID for voting she would not have been able to get one in time for an election. The problem with voter ID is that it takes the discretion away from election judge. When judges are forced to turn away voters that THEY KNOW LIVE IN THE COMMUNITY that is simply wrong.

COMMENT #18 [Permalink]

... E.A. Blair said on 2/25/2012 @ 7:30 am PT...





Hardass is wrong. I am a Wisconsin Election Inspector, and a veteran's government-issues photo card is on the list of acceptable IDs. The poll workers at that particular ward were being jerks. Had a similar situation arisen at the ward in which I worked last Tuesday, I would have instructed the people working check-in to accept the card and double-checked the decision by calling in to the Election Commission.

COMMENT #19 [Permalink]

... E.A. Blair said on 2/25/2012 @ 7:31 am PT...





"Government-issued". Sorry about the typo.

COMMENT #20 [Permalink]

... gdog62 said on 2/25/2012 @ 10:30 am PT...





Hey Wisconsin, you elected Republicans, you got Republican government. This is who they are, this is what they do. Enjoy your serfdom living under your GOP overlords, who with so many Dems disenfranchised, you now may never be able to get out of office.

COMMENT #21 [Permalink]

... Madison Voices said on 2/25/2012 @ 1:16 pm PT...





gdog62, it is actually much worse than that. Like everywhere else in America, the democratic party does not always present a clear difference and even when they grandstand and talk tough, they are short of action when it could matter. Sure, the fab 14 left the state last year to prevent a quorum and that was a brave thing to do. But there are any number of issues where dems could make a difference and choose instead to hold meaningless press conferences. We have dems like Janesville's Cullen that think this is all about being "bipartisan" and reaching across the aisle , even when the repugs can be objectively demonstrated to be lying hacks. Yes, voter ID is disenfranchising some, but the party itself has been disenfranchising voters for years. And the propaganda in the mainstream media here is getting heavier. When walkergate is covered the stories are shoved down the memory hole, never to be explained again and every detail that is presented is written as a series of disconnected events. In terms of voter ID, even though there clearly were incidents of people not being able to vote and the turnout was only about 10 percent, the major news outlets proclaimed "no problems!" and that the new policies just worked great. Many of us are working hard to turn this around and if your point is that it won't be easy, you are right. To me, the most disturbing thing is that once certain union interests get back what they lost, they will probably go back to voting republican - if not in the next election cycle, in the near future. Many that proclaim "solidarity" actually are just whining that it is "unfair" that something was taken from them, yet they have routinely advocated for and voted for an agenda that leaves the majority of citizens behind - shame on them.

COMMENT #22 [Permalink]

... Brad Friedman said on 2/25/2012 @ 2:11 pm PT...





E.A. Blair @ 18 said: a veteran's government-issues photo card is on the list of acceptable IDs. The poll workers at that particular ward were being jerks. I haven't had the time to look up yet whether you are wrong or right there. Either way, however, it underscores how a) confusing this voter suppression law can be and b) how easily it can be abused by those entrusted to oversee it (poll workers) if they wish to. That's not to say they did, since, as noted, I haven't checked out your assertion yet. But just pointing out how it could be used to disenfranchise voters at the whim of "jerks". We've seen many similar cases in the past. For example, in Missouri where they don't have a polling place Photo ID requirement, certain precincts were requiring them anyway, and only those who knew better --- eg: The MO Secretary of State herself who was told three times she needed a Photo ID to vote! --- had a chance of overcoming the potential disenfranchisement. Others in Missouri who tried to vote without a Photo ID were actually thrown in jail!

COMMENT #23 [Permalink]

... krissy said on 2/25/2012 @ 2:23 pm PT...





The VA card has no birthdate or address, no wonder they wouldn't accept it.

COMMENT #24 [Permalink]

... Brad Friedman said on 2/25/2012 @ 3:19 pm PT...





Krissy @ 23 said: The VA card has no birthdate or address, no wonder they wouldn't accept it. Good point! Just because his name was on the voter rolls and matched that VA card, he coulda stolen it from somewhere, figured out where the guy live, and then risked a felony charge to take the chance that that the real veteran hadn't already voted when he showed up to vote under his name! Best to presume veterans guilty until they can prove their innocence. It's not as if they risked their lives so that we can all vote or anything. Thanks for your vigilance, Krissy! How American Democracy survived more than 200 years without polling place Photo ID restrictions and your support for keeping veterans from casting their legal vote I do not know!

COMMENT #25 [Permalink]

... Jeannie Dean said on 2/25/2012 @ 8:42 pm PT...





Gdog62 @ 20 writes, "Hey Wisconsin, you elected Republicans, you got Republican government..." ...er...how can you be sure of that?

COMMENT #26 [Permalink]

... SBT18 said on 3/2/2012 @ 12:35 am PT...

