Brittish priest being deported after living legally in US for 14 years: for voting in 2006

Voter ID by itself isn't racist. It's how Republicans in red states and districts go about implementing voter ID.. a point that is consistently ignored by the promoters of voter ID laws.

The laws are commonly put in place directly before elections to have the greatest impact on the electorate, not say in the two years between elections when implementation would cause no discrepancy. They also close down DMV offices in certain areas to make getting a new ID that much more difficult right before the election. They change working hours on in the places to make it more difficult as well.

It also just so happens that the demographics least likely to have a valid ID happen to be minority groups.

Basically, as I said, the ID laws aren't racist, it's how they implement the laws and the communities that are most impacted them that make them racist. It's a similar pattern where you see them pop up.

>Implement totally not racist voter ID law

>Target DMVs and put as many obstacles as possible in minority neighborhoods to actually obtain an ID.

>Cheer about low voter turnout in those districts.

>Make pretend its not racist or politically motivated.
Excellent post.
To add to that, the voter ID laws aren't designed to be so blatant that they would seem unreasonable to the layman. The goal isn't to disenfranchise every single minority voter, but to discourage a small portion that is already under served and ignored. Discouraging 1--5% of the electorate is enough to win smaller elections.

Also, let's consider that there is an exponentially much higher potential for fraud in absentee ballot voting than in person poll voting. Notice how the GOP has never brought up that issue in their quest to prevent voter fraud. You can guess why.
 
If he was able to register to vote, how would a required ID stop him from voting? Does IDs say which country you're a citizen of?
 
There is a system in place to stop it.

It's called voter registration. The person handling his registration should have caught it.

Or do you have a cure for incompetence?

We've got computer systems that won't let me type in the wrong billing zip code for my credit card on checkout. Its says please try again

But we don't have anything that, you know, actually restricts the entry fields to only accepting a person that is actually legal to vote there?

Any person working voter registration can register any person they decide to? That sounds like a horrible system ripe for mistakes at best and corruption at worst
 
What? You're mentioning things like "to make getting a new ID that much more difficult right before the election" but why not have an ID, well, at any point before the election? How can this be "racist"? It's looking like one of the most absurdly irresponsible things I have read. Are you saying poor minorities can't get IDs until the day of an election? If the hours change from 12-6, then go between 12-6 like anyone else would. You can't think they are that incredibly irresponsible and unaccountable can you?

If your vote is tied to your driver's license, social security number, or state ID, and I can reference my recorded vote, that is as objectively fair and transparent as anyone can hope for. What "obstacle" would some random poor minority have to overcome in getting an ID, of all things that I wouldn't have to "overcome".

Wow I really hope there's more to this argument than this because I'll be forced to side with the most righty of rights on this one man.

So you think it's the right thing to do to simultaneously make an ID a requirement to vote in areas not required historically within weeks of an election while at the same time closing down and limiting access to the only place you can get an ID specifically in those same areas?
 
What? You're mentioning things like "to make getting a new ID that much more difficult right before the election" but why not have an ID, well, at any point before the election? How can this be "racist"? It's looking like one of the most absurdly irresponsible things I have read. Are you saying poor minorities can't get IDs until the day of an election? If the hours change from 12-6, then go between 12-6 like anyone else would. You can't think they are that incredibly irresponsible and unaccountable can you?

If your vote is tied to your driver's license, social security number, or state ID, and I can reference my recorded vote, that is as objectively fair and transparent as anyone can hope for. What "obstacle" would some random poor minority have to overcome in getting an ID, of all things that I wouldn't have to "overcome".

Wow I really hope there's more to this argument than this because I'll be forced to side with the most righty of rights on this one man.
If voter ID laws sound totally reasonable to you, maybe, just maybe, it's because you are not part of the demographics they are targeting.
 
Yes, to my knowledge you have to register with your official state ID or social security number, that is cross checked and verified against government documents before you receive it.
I don’t have to register in North Dakota.
 
Do you really think Democrats meant it literally. The gist of the Democrat argument was that illegal voting wasn't an issue, i.e. we don't have significant number of non-citizens voting.

Re. this priest.
He made a mistake, a small mistake in the grand scheme of things, that shouldn't be reason enough to deport him.
I do not buy into the conspiracy that there are millions of illegals voting and swinging elections.
It still makes no sense that there is no form of universal ID in the USA. Even third world countries offer it for free or for a nominal charge to its citizens. It's simple and efficient.
There should be a campaign to give every citizen a US passport card and after everybody got it make it obligatory to show one to vote.
 
My opinion is that it should be required for all people everywhere. As in, it should be the actual rule of the land. I think it's ridiculous and outdated to not do so, helps against corruption or mistakes, and makes situations like the OP literally impossible to happen. If the defense to that is "but it's racist" or "what about the poor" that might be the single weakest defense I have read on a topic since engaging in WR discussion.



Why are no ID rules better? Tons of mistakes, lack of accountability, dead people voting 11 times, even without the unknown number of illegals vote every election argument. How is this a better solution, to not have better verification for voters?



I know.

Again, ad nauseam it's not about the laws themselves.

It's when, where, and how they're put into place which make them at best politically motivated, or at worst explicitly racist.

If you ask me, it's not constitutional to require citizens to purchase an ID to vote. It would be one thing if they were free, but they're not. They requirement an investment of not only money but time during the work week.

It is an inherit right of all citizens. You should not have to pay to exercise your rights, especially one so basic and important as voting.
 
I do not buy into the conspiracy that there are millions of illegals voting and swinging elections.
It still makes no sense that there is no form of universal ID in the USA. Even third world countries offer it for free or for a nominal charge to its citizens. It's simple and efficient.
There should be a campaign to give every citizen a US passport card and after everybody got it make it obligatory to show one to vote.


That's the thing.

There is no intention behind the voter ID laws being rolled out by Republicans to improve election integrity.

Improving election integrity is being used as a ruse to keep people from voting before certain elections.
 
The entire world scratches their heads at this stuff, but as Onionesque as it is to disregard common sense voting procedure, deporting someone for this after being a citizen for a decade could be worse, if true of course:

"From what Boase recalls, the vote he cast the following year was for a ballot measure to boost fire-protection resources for the local fire department."

In the EU, foreign EU citizens can vote for city parliaments and mayor elections, but nothing where actual laws are involved (state or federal level). Non-EU citizens cannot vote.

The whole gerrymandering-voter ID-etc. thing is way over-politicized in the US, and the reason for that is the two-party system.
 
That's the thing.

There is no intention behind the voter ID laws being rolled out by Republicans to improve election integrity.

Improving election integrity is being used as a ruse to keep people from voting before certain elections.

I don't get why there's no way to introduce IDs nationwide. Make them mandatory, make them cheap, give everyone five years to obtain one. Lack of birth certificates cannot be an issue in this timeframe, there must be a possibility to prove who you are.

After 5 years, everyone has an ID, voter or not.
 
I don't get why there's no way to introduce IDs nationwide. Make them mandatory, make them cheap, give everyone five years to obtain one. Lack of birth certificates cannot be an issue in this timeframe, there must be a possibility to prove who you are.

After 5 years, everyone has an ID, voter or not.

If only there was some unique identifier assigned at birth to all citizens...
 
If you ask me, it's not constitutional to require citizens to purchase an ID to vote. It would be one thing if they were free, but they're not. They requirement an investment of not only money but time during the work week.

It is an inherit right of all citizens. You should not have to pay to exercise your rights, especially one so basic and important as voting.

Well I disagreed with you at first but yea it's hard to argue against this point. If it's required then it should be free to get at least 2 free ID's a year and hours of operation should be later in the day extending well past normal working hours 8pm at least.
 
What kind of shitty voting system do we have, that a guy can just walk in and vote?


inb4 "Voter ID is needed"....that isn't even the issue....This dude just entered and voted......meaning that he didn't even have to put a SSN or anything.


We need to upgrade our crap voting system IMO.
 
Well I disagreed with you at first but yea it's hard to argue against this point. If it's required then it should be free to get at least 2 free ID's a year and hours of operation should be later in the day extending well past normal working hours 8pm at least.

It's completely unnecessary and redundant when you consider that Social Security# are a thing and are assigned to all citizens at birth for free which can be used as a unique identifier.

Make a system that picks up SS# spoofing more readily instead of requiring every citizen to take time out of their work week and money out of their pocket for a physical ID.

Voter ID laws create more problems and further complicate an already complicated system. That is the intention behind Republican voter ID laws. They're not trying to improve election integrity. They're trying to increase voting complexity and quite frankly it's absurd that anyone stands for it.
 
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It's stupid to deport him.
 
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