Fun Stuff > CHATTER
2012 Election
Carl-E:
The testimony in PA against the voter ID law was very moving - people who were married recently (name changed on the license, but not on the voter registration? Sorry, you can't vote!) or people who can't get to one of the statewide DMV's to get a free ID (there are 67 counties - some don't even have a branch of the DMV, and there are only 5 in Philadelphia, and only one (!!) in Pittsburgh). After all, if they don't have a license, how can they get to another county to gete an ID?
It was a stupid law, enacted without enough time to put it into effect in a reasonable way. Initially, the free ID at the DMV wasn't even in the statute, it was added as an amendment. It had one and only one purpose - to stop poor, minority and young voters from being able to. I think there was some shmoe in the state house who actually said that it "cinched the election for Romney" when it passed.
And it wasn't revoked just delayed. You were still asked for an ID at the poll (I was, even though all the pollworkers know me), but if you didn't have one, you could still vote and it still counted. I think that counted as intimidation, myself. Bear in mind that you need to sign a registration form before you can vote anyway, and it has the signature you registered with for comparison, so you've already been ID'd that way!
Most of it was a poorly planned ploy, plotted by pernicious pricks.
Is it cold in here?:
You remember correctly. It was Representative Mike Turzai.
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Re: Trump: it's worth knowing that the rest of the world got surveyed about who they would vote for in the US presidential election if they were allowed to. http://globescan.com/commentary-and-analysis/press-releases/press-releases-2012/245-global-poll-obama-overwhelmingly-preferred-to-romney.html. I don't know whether the rest of the world laughs at us for almost electing Romney. I suspect they grimace instead.
bainidhe_dub:
Nikolai- To get a sense of the candidates/parties, you can take a quiz at ISideWith.com. They include all 4 of the "third"-party candidates from this election so you get pretty comprehensive results. There's a lot of questions on a range of social, economic, and military issues.
A voter ID law in Texas was struck down because it was found to be an undue burden (I think that was the phrase - something like that) on poor and minority voters. You had to have one of a few types of ID like drivers license, but if you didn't you could get a free voting ID. All you had to do was get to the local security office (4 or 5 near the major cities, 1 in most counties, none in some) by some method (because, no driver's license hopefully means no car) with your birth certificate or other proof ($20 if you need to get a copies).
I mean, I'm not sure how people function day-to-day without SOME kind of photo ID, but three months before elections is not the time and place to start trying to change that.
Papersatan:
It doesn't just have to be some photo ID, it has to be a photo ID with your current address. If you have moved you need to go get a new ID, that costs money, in NY anyways.
Also, forms of photo ID without your address:
Student ID
Government benefit card (in some states these have your photo)
Passport
That's right, the ID that is good enough to get one across the border, would not be good enough to let you vote.
Lines:
That quiz was really interesting. Apparently I side the most with Stein and Obama, which is not surprising since I consider myself to be a Democrat with Green leanings. Though I find myself disappointed with the education questions, but none of the candidates really had a platform I agreed with anyways. (Politicians don't really get public education, but sadly not enough educators [I'm specifically talking about public schools, not college professors] become politicians.)
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