You might know some people who are convinced that requiring a photo identification at the polls is a reasonable demand. However, I hope everyone understands that you can’t make people pay to vote. That’s called a Poll Tax, and it is unconstitutional. So, when Republicans create Voter ID laws, they have to provide for a free identification card or the law will be struck down by the courts. In Wisconsin, they’ve found a way around this:
An internal memo from a top Department of Transportation official instructs workers at Division of Motor Vehicles service centers not to tell members of the public that they can obtain voter identification cards free of charge — unless they know to ask for it.
The memo, recently obtained by The Capital Times, was written by Steve Krieser and sent to all state Department of Transportation and Department of Motor Vehicles employees on July 1, the same day employees were to begin issuing photo IDs in accordance with a controversial new voter photo ID law adopted earlier in the year.
As laid out in the memo, failure to check a box when applying for photo ID with the Division of Motor Vehicles will result in the payment of $28. Interviews conducted about the memo suggest the state is more interested in continuing to charge the fee, which is required for a photo ID used for non-voting purposes, than it is in removing all barriers and providing easy access to a free, photo ID.
“While you should certainly help customers who come in asking for a free ID to check the appropriate box, you should refrain from offering the free version to customers who do not ask for it,” Krieser writes to employees.
I kind of feel like I should get a refund for the cost of my passport or driver’s license, as those would be my two main sources of photo identification. But, in any case, this is a rather clear way of demonstrating the true intent of Voter ID laws. Actual voter fraud involving voting under a false identity is almost entirely non-existent. Even President Bush’s Justice Department, one of the most politicized and disgraceful departments in the history of the country, could find no evidence of systemic voter fraud. That’s because it isn’t happening and these Voter ID laws are expensive and cumbersome wastes of time. Except that, the laws discourage poor people from voting. That’s the intent. And that’s why only 59% of the people who have gotten their Photo ID in Wisconsin since this bill passed have gotten it for free. Forty-one percent of the people got ripped off and had to pay $28. And an untold number of people didn’t get a free ID because they weren’t told they were free.
Republicans want to win elections by preventing poor people from voting. Period.
Check this one from my blog several months ago about this same issue.
Some DMVs here in WI even require recent bank activity in order to obtain a voter ID card. Which begs the question: if you have a savings account, and you are young or elderly and don’t visit that account all the time, will you still be penalized and not receive such a voter card?
Wow, REQUIRE it? In VA, it was one of the few ways I could prove my residency, given that I’m unemployed. Other ways included bills or statements from employers.
…but they want you to be transacting money around like within a few days before the DMV visit or something. And for poor and elderly and youth, this is not always possible.
Imagine how many black youth do not have a bank account. Or have a copy of their birth certificate. Or have any other ID.
Let’s say you just put money down at a certain time of the month, like the first. For rent, utilities, etc. And then it’s dormant for the next few weeks. What are they going to say, that you’re a part-time resident of Wisconsin or something?
What makes these proposals especially obvious as to what they’re really about is my own personal story with getting my license (I got it two weeks ago, but it was a MAJOR hassle…copy-pasted from a previous discussion):
“Holy crap. Speaking of the DMV, today was just a reminder to me of how anti-democratic voter-ID laws are.
So despite my steadfast opposition to getting a license, I finally have to due to economic realities. I have an ID-card and a passport with me, and two pieces of mail. I go to information, “You need a birth certificate.”
Well, w/e. No big deal, not like I stood in line yet. So I go back home, get my birth certificate, and go back. After two hours, I’m finally called. I provide my ID-card, passport, two pieces of mail and birth certificate. She can’t start the license process because the mail I gave didn’t fit the list of criteria. One of the pieces of mail I provided came from the Federal Government — the Department of Education — but it wasn’t on their “list” of acceptable things. So now I have to go tomorrow.”
Ok but that’s just the fun part! Guess how I proved that I live where I live? I went to my bank, I changed my address right there on the spot — the bank didn’t ask for proof — and then I had them print out a statement, and sign it. THAT was acceptable. It’s a bunch of BS because my real residency could have been in Idaho for all that bank knows, but the DMV didn’t care because it “matched the list.”
So. Stupid. And it just shows what these lows are really about.
the laws are now lows.
Social Security now requires you to have a bank account to receive benefits. Coincident with that change, the too-big-to-fail banks stopped offering free checking accounts for SS direct deposit.
Isn’t it wonderful that we now have a Democratic Administration to protect poor people?
The whole thing is pretty outrageous.
I don’t drive, so I don’t have a driver’s license. I’m not permitted to vote in Wisconsin anymore unless I get one of those $28 IDs. My reaction is just not to vote. I think I have a right to vote, and how dare they make me jump through a long series of hoops in order to get that right?
Here is what I envision will happen. First thing, according to the instructions on the State of Wisconsin web site, I need to get four different pieces of identification to present at the DMV. It will cost money to obtain those IDs, and will probably take a couple of months to work through the bureaucracy.
OK, so I have my four IDs and get to the Motor Vehicle Department and wait half a day in line and then what will happen? I will be told that there is a problem with one of the IDs, or that the rules have changed and I now need a fifth kind of ID. So I have to do whatever they tell me to do and come back a month later, and then if I remember the secret password, I can get an ID without even paying a poll tax.
Except — they don’t issue the ID on the spot. They mail it to you. Of course, it takes a while to get the things in the mail. If it’s within striking distance of an election (which it seems like it always is in Wisconsin these days), what do you want to bet the ID gets mailed out the day after the election.
Then, when the next election rolls around, I go to the polling place with my new voter ID in hand. Here is what will happen. Since I live in a heavily blue precinct, I expect that they will look very closely at the ID. Oh, lookee here. On the voter rolls, my name has a middle initial, and on my voter ID, my middle name is written out. “No ballot for you!”
If they are looking for ways to prevent people from voting, I don’t think it’s that hard to find them.
Don’t sell them short. They also want to prevent young people from voting too, especially the college kids in Wisconsin.
It’s even more outrageous that apparently a low-level employee was fired for mentioning in an email that you are not supposed to tell people. So we start with an illegal thing that you try to get people to pay for a state-required card, and then you get fired if you mention it.
Wississippi.
Can’t argue with that. Also, I second the motion that all state issued ID , including, passports, should be free.
I think it’s outrageous that my sixteen year old grandson (a non-driver) had to pay $20 for a state photo ID in order to get a Social Security Card. He already had a number (since birth) but he was required to have the ID to get the card.
It was no big deal financially, for us, but could be for some poor teen trying to get a job.
P.S. Don’t tell Gov. Quinn (D? – IL) that Wisconsin charges $28 or he’ll up the price.
I think at this points all state photo ID, driver’s licenses, and federal passports should be free. It should not cost a citizen money to legally identify themselves.
That said, I still oppose voter ID specifically because it adds another layer of beaurocracy that can be gamed by those who want to suppress the vote.
Well, the idea that it’s a priori fraudulent for the poor to vote is certainly present in their thinking on the issue.
Voter ID is about reinstituting Jim Crow, pure and simple. Only this time with a larger group being disenfranchised.
If it succeeds, public schools will be dead. And given the trend in meanness in the Republican party, we might see separate water fountains, entry doors, etc.
Whites – Colored – Hispanics – Gays
This is the way it used to be in the South. Gas stations had restrooms labeled Men, Women, Colored.
No real need for a diary on this. The governor of NC (Democrat) has already successfully vetoed this. (The Blue Dog Dems realized that they were the targets too.)
Forgot about Muslims and Atheists
You might know some people who are convinced that requiring a photo identification at the polls is a reasonable demand.
That’s what they are soooo good at. “Teach the controversy” say the creationists. “School choice” say the people who want to kill off public education.
Lakoff pointed this out, what, 9 years ago? And still our incompetent political party hasn’t figured it out. You have a “stimulus bill” instead of a “Jobs Bill”, the-whatever-you-call-it act instead of, say, “the Health Care Bill of Rights”.
We so often START the debate in a losing position because we let the GOP define the terms. We should use a term like “multi-millionaire’s inheritance tax” instead of “estate tax”. “Unearned income tax” instead of “capital gains tax”. “Pollution penalties” instead of “cap and trade”.
I think the last time the left picked a strong term for a controversial issue it was “pro-choice” in the 1970s – and even on that topic we’ve let the reich wing define the subsequent terms, from the false “partial birth abortion” to all the names for their other crazy schemes.
Well, correct that, the “Climate hawks/climate deniers” positioning is pretty good, and those terms are very new. More like that, please.
So, for voter ID, yeah it SOUNDS reasonable that everyone has picture ID – especially to people who couldn’t imagine not having one. So we need to counter that with a term that clearly addresses the problem here.
Thinking out loud here: “Free Picture ID”. “No Picture ID tax”. “Free voting, Free picture ID”.
None of those is exactly right – but the lefty blogosphere needs to find some quick phrase to cover this issue.
thank you, BooMan.
this is a POLL TAX. don’t wanna hear no bullshyt about how it’s NOT one.
it’s a modern day POLL TAX.
they don’t believe in little ‘ d’ democracy.
never have.
Unreal.
Heh – apparently, not in the current Sovereign Barony of Wisconsin.