Register to Vote (U.S. only)

Hey kids! It's nearing election season again, and I'd like to put out a friendly reminder that you should register to vote, if you haven't already. Even if you don't plan to vote, you should register, so not voting becomes your choice, and not someone else's.

Also, keep in mind that if you live in one of these states, you'll need to provide ID to vote:
• Indiana
• Florida
• Tennessee
• Michigan
• South Dakota
• Idaho
• Louisiana
• Kansas
• New Hampshire
• Georgia

Please see letmypeoplevote2012.com/ for links to information about what constitutes valid ID for your state (along with a very colorful video explaining why such laws are a bad idea, which I happen to agree with).

Fortunately, such measures have been blocked in Pennsylvania and Mississippi for these elections, so there is no change there from previous years, for now.

Now for a politically-charged rant against Voter ID laws. If you don't want to read it, stop here.

All right, I don't normally get this bent out of shape when it comes to politics, but attacks on the right to vote hit on one of *the* most essential rights a citizen of a democratic state can have. Casting this restriction as a way to prevent voter fraud is the sugar coating to an insidious poison pill, when it will do far more to prevent legitimate voters from voting than illegitimate ones.

Why? Because ID laws like this have historically disadvantaged the poor, non-whites, the elderly  and students. Depending on how the law is written, it can cost money to get an ID. The process may be difficult if you are homeless and don't have a permanent address, or if you must travel to a place during working hours to obtain an ID. What used to be a right now becomes the privilege of those with time and/or means.  The fact that these laws target primarily left-leaning voters is telling, since it is primarily conservatives who are passing these laws. If this was actually good legislation, you should see strong bi-partisan support, and you are not seeing it here. There is good evidence that these practices are against the federal Voting Rights Act.

But what about voter fraud? There's little-to-no evidence that widescale voter fraud actually exists, for one. It is my opinion that the voice of fraudsters will get lost in the noise, as there just aren't that big of incentives to commit voter fraud when compared with the existing penalties--it's a felony, by the way. You just aren't going to find that many people willing to subject themselves to the possibility of a felony charge against them just to cast a vote when they are not allowed to.

Any system that purports to combat voter fraud must be effective at doing so *without* disenfranchising legitimate voters. There can be no false positives in this system. A voter ID system that I would actually support must do everything possible to prevent disenfranchisement. This means it must be free and easy to obtain, require no additional voter education than what a voter is already used to, and must be able to be obtained while the polls are opened. I'm not entirely sure what such a system would look like, but it would probably have to have the ability to cast provisional ballots while the state verifies your ID, and the process should be able to be completed over a wide variety of mediums, including telephone, internet, mail, in person (after business hours too), and the process should be transparent and easy to complete. Ideally, it should allow a wide variety of identifications, with the burden being on the state to verify their validity.


All in all, it sounds like an expensive undertaking with very little real benefit, so in the end, let's just drop the charade and call the current voter ID laws what they are: an effort to discourage non-conservative votes.