Voter photo I.D. passes — in Rhode Island

July 13, 2011 by Don Surber
From the Providence Journal:

When a voter ID bill passed in Rhode Island last week, longtime opponents were stunned. How could this happen in one of the country’s most Democratic and liberal states? Why did Democratic leaders and black legislators support it? And why did Governor Chafee sign it?

Some say black politicians were trying to protect themselves from Hispanics’ growing political power — two longtime black legislators were defeated by Hispanics in the 2010 elections. Some cite illegal immigration as a driving force. Some say voter ID is simply essential.

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/ar ... more-37803

Bravo to Rhode Island!
I am a libertarian but I can't understand how people can get things done in this society without photo id.

And getting goverment photo ID is free or very inexpensive.

I love the logic of the illiberals. Needing to show a photo ID to purchase over the counter cold medicine isn't an intrusion and disenfranchising, but the same requirement to vote is. You just can't make this stuff up. Next they'll be telling us that you are committing child abuse if your child is obese.........oh wait...........

Looks like the Dems in RI find it OK to be disenfranchising so long it helps their candidates. Makes perfect sense!

They will supply a photo ID at no charge to anyone who doesn't have one that qualifies. No one will de disenfrancised.

This will only work if those that get the photo ID's have to also PROVE BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT that they are also American citizens. (another one of those great little requirements to vote in this country). I would bet there are alot of votes that happen every election that are not valid just on that fact alone. here's a better idea. Make everyone give their SSN and have it verified at the polling place to verify who one is. Bet some of those so called citizens get arrested for stealing SSN.

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navycpo7 wrote: This will only work if those that get the photo ID's have to also PROVE BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT that they are also American citizens. (another one of those great little requirements to vote in this country). I would bet there are alot of votes that happen every election that are not valid just on that fact alone. here's a better idea. Make everyone give their SSN and have it verified at the polling place to verify who one is. Bet some of those so called citizens get arrested for stealing SSN.

Yeah, that would be fun.......I can just imagine the wait times to vote if everyone's SS# had to be checked against a national database.........what about mail votes....how do you check those? or should we go back to only voting booth voting?

Depends, do you want to have a vote with or without assurance of its integrity? If integrity of the vote isn't important, by all means, hold all elections as mail only ballots. If, however, elections integrity is important, then it should be done in person, at the designated polling place and with at least some reasonable attempts made to verify the ability of the person to cast a vote in the election. Given the reality that most, if not all, areas of the nation include in their code of laws the necessity of providing some recognized form of identification upon request or demand of a duly authorized government official, a similar requirement to the official election judges certainly would fall within the classification of reasonable.

Maybe have election week instead of election day?

chickaree wrote: Maybe have election week instead of election day?

Until I see some actual proof that illegals are voting in sufficient numbers to cause a problem, I think we should leave the voting process as it is. I doubt the conservatives would go for it anyway, they certainly didn't want to spend any money on hanging chad problems in Florida.