One Day After RNC Calls For Minority Outreach, Arkansas GOP Passes Bill To Suppress

superpunk · Mar 20, 2013

Monday morning, the Republican National Committee released a lengthy “autopsy” of their 2012 electoral loss, much of which was devoted to the GOP’s weak standing among people of color. “It is imperative that the RNC changes how it engages with Hispanic communities to welcome in new members of our Party” the autopsy proclaims, and “the Republican Party must be committed to building a lasting relationship within the African American community year-round, based on mutual respect and with a spirit of caring.”
One day later, Arkansas Republicans showed their mutual respect and spirit of caring for people of color by passing a law that will keep many of them from casting a vote.
Yesterday, the Arkansas Senate passed — on an entirely party-line vote — a so-called voter ID law requiring voters to show photo identification before they can cast a ballot. The same voter suppression measure already passed the state House with all but one of the votes for the bill coming from Republicans. These laws, which are popular among Republican lawmakers, accomplish little more than disenfranchisement. Even conservative estimates suggest that these laws will prevent 2 to 3 percent of registered voters from casting a ballot. And this impact is felt hardest by low-income voters, students and people of color — all of who tend to prefer Democrats to Republicans.
The most common argument raised in favor of voter ID laws is that they prevent in-person voter fraud, but this claim cannot be squared with reality. A person is more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit fraud at the polls. A Wisconsin study found that only 0.00023 percent of votes are the product of such fraud. So voter ID laws disenfranchise a large chunk of voters — between 2 and 9 percent, according to different reports on their effect — in order to prevent a virtually non-existent form of voter fraud.
The bill will now go to Gov. Mike Beebe (D-AR), who should veto it.

iceberg · Mar 20, 2013

heh - from thinkprogress.com it would seem. glad you use biased sources.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2012/10/21/voter-fraud-voter-id/1647913/

Voter fraud is so rare that "you're more likely to get hit by lightning than find a case of prosecutorial voter fraud," asserts the liberal Advancement Project. An August study by News 21, a group of journalism students, claimed that to find only 10 prosecutions of in-person voter impersonation nationwide since the year 2000.

If state legislators worried about voter fraud are just imagining the problem, then it's that much easier to block laws requiring voters to use photo ID to prove they are eligible voters. But that's not quite the whole story. Evidence used to dismiss the problem turns out to be thin.

A large number of the nation's 3,031 counties never provided data, and the News21 researchers report that they sent out only 2,000 queries. Nor did the study mention the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding voter ID laws, which found an "extreme difficulty of apprehending a voter impersonator" if ID isn't required. While voter impersonation is hard to detect, it is easy to commit. Earlier this year, James O'Keefe released a video of a 22-year-old undercover reporter who obtained Attorney General Eric Holder's ballot in Washington, D.C., and could easily have voted if he had chosen to.

superpunk · Mar 20, 2013

Right, voter ID isn't a problem.

iceberg · Mar 20, 2013

superpunk said:
Right, voter ID isn't a problem.

no. using only biased sites to point to in order to see a singular view is.

iceberg · Mar 20, 2013

http://townhall.com/columnists/john...show_voter_fraud_is_a_huge_problem/page/full/

superpunk · Mar 20, 2013

Right so voter fraud is easy and an epidemic.

There were thousands of Republican watchdog groups policing polling stations during the last election, trying to make sure the darkie didn't get any votes from dead people.

So surely you must have thousands of examples of fraud and attempted fraud from the last election. I'd love to see that.

iceberg · Mar 20, 2013

superpunk said:
Right so voter fraud is easy and an epidemic.

There were thousands of Republican watchdog groups policing polling stations during the last election, trying to make sure the darkie didn't get any votes from dead people.

So surely you must have thousands of examples of fraud and attempted fraud from the last election. I'd love to see that.

then read the previous link. and if you think only ONE side would do it...

giggle.

JBond · Mar 20, 2013

Oh no...the world is going to end. people must actually show an ID to vote...Oh Noes....

Libs believe certain minorities can not figure out how to get a legal ID. They believe it is beyond their abilities. You need ID to collect government handouts, get a job, or open a bank account, but to vote.....Oh noes....it is to much for them. They are not capable.

Personally, I have more faith in their abilities and think they can do it.

iceberg · Mar 20, 2013

yea, you need to show an ID to check out a book, buying alcohol and using your credit card at times, but doing it for voting - CRIMES I TELL YOU!!!

JBond · Mar 20, 2013

superpunk said:
Right so voter fraud is easy and an epidemic.

There were thousands of Republican watchdog groups policing polling stations during the last election, trying to make sure the darkie didn't get any votes from dead people.

So surely you must have thousands of examples of fraud and attempted fraud from the last election. I'd love to see that.

Logic is still a challange for you I see. How do you know how many people are cheating if there are no rules?

superpunk · Mar 20, 2013

JBond said:
Oh no...the world is going to end. people must actually show an ID to vote...Oh Noes....

Libs believe certain minorities can not figure out how to get a legal ID. They believe it is beyond their abilities. You need ID to collect government handouts, get a job, or open a bank account, but to vote.....Oh noes....it is to much for them. They are not capable.

Personally, I have more faith in their abilities and think they can do it.

I think what they believe is all the studies that show these laws are discriminatory.

Which is coincidentally why these laws keep getting struck down in the courts.

superpunk · Mar 20, 2013

JBond said:
Logic is still a challange for you I see. How do you know how many people are cheating if there are no rules?

There are no laws against voter fraud?

JBond · Mar 20, 2013

superpunk said:
There are no laws against voter fraud?

There are laws against voter fraud. In order to enforce them effectively you have to know who is voting. When you have poll workers voting six times, there is an issue.

Why do you feel minorities are so incapable? Why are you scared for them to show their ID? How do you get by in life with no ID?

superpunk · Mar 20, 2013

JBond said:
There are laws against voter fraud. In order to enforce them effectively you have to know who is voting. When you have poll workers voting six times, there is an issue.

So you are trotting out ONE instance of fraud still?

Right. You've got nothing.

Why do you feel minorities are so incapable? Why are you scared for them to show their ID? How do you get by in life with no ID?

I live in the real world, where it's been shown repeatedly that these policies are discriminatory. You live in the bigot-world, where the same thing has been shown, but you don't care.

iceberg · Mar 20, 2013

superpunk said:
I live in the real world, where it's been shown repeatedly that these policies are discriminatory. You live in the bigot-world, where the same thing has been shown, but you don't care.

how is it discriminatory to ask someone to have a valid ID? why would i NOT be able to get one easily enough?

superpunk · Mar 20, 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/us/court-blocks-tough-voter-id-law-in-texas.html

iceberg · Mar 20, 2013

fine. then find easier ways to get them proper identification.

JBond · Mar 20, 2013

So some federal judges believe minorities are too stupid to get an ID. Nothing new here. The racism of the left is really getting ridiculous. Don't want none of them minorities types having an ID, getting too big for their britches. Got to keep them down. Next thing you know they will have a job and start paying taxes and poof goes the core democrat voting block.

Meanwhile in enlightened Kansas, voter ID laws work just fine. We pay for the transportation to get the ID and pay for the ID. Simple as can be.

superpunk · Mar 20, 2013

or we could just not worry about made-up problems.

There is virtually no evidence of voter fraud in America, despite enormous efforts by the republican party to uncover it.

I find it interesting that conservatives are advocating revisions to this law that would cost taxpayers more money (i.e. pay for transportation and ID) to deal with an issue that hasn't even been shown to exist!

GEE I FUCKING WONDER WHY

iceberg · Mar 20, 2013

superpunk said:
or we could just not worry about made-up problems.

There is virtually no evidence of voter fraud in America, despite enormous efforts by the republican party to uncover it.

I find it interesting that conservatives are advocating revisions to this law that would cost taxpayers more money (i.e. pay for transportation and ID) to deal with an issue that hasn't even been shown to exist!

GEE I FUCKING WONDER WHY

if you don't have to have an ID to begin with, how do you know it's NOT an issue?

you don't. so you pretend away as usual.

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