It's no surprise that that not a single Democrat representative from Indiana voted for this law. Republicans are not worried about vote fraud. They like it a lot as long as they are the perpetrators. It's no surprise that the Diebold company is owned by Republicans and has frequent "errors" that invariably favor Republicans.

Of course Republicans often prefer the more direct route to voter suppression. Republican "challengers" often come to poor neighborhoods to challenge the "legitimacy" of black voters who vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. Let's not forget the long lines in predominantly Democratic precincts in 2004 where voters had to wait for hours to cast their votes while in the suburbs there was virtually no wait. (Coincidence I'm sure.)

This ID law "solves" a problem that doesn't exist: voters posing as someone else to vote. There is not a single documented case in Indidana history. It's clear the real intent of this law was to make it harder for poor (Democratic) voters to vote and to give Republicans yet another tool to challenge them with.

Most people no longer believe the lies about tax cuts creating more revenue and attacking other countries making us safer so voter suppression is all the Republicans have left.

The fact is that there is not one documented case of a person being prevented from voting legitimately because of a requirement to present an ID. These laws are in pace all over the world, and there is not one documented case of vote "suppression" resulting from an ID requirement.

The clear intent of thwarting these simple, common-sense measures is two-fold: 1) to increase the level of mistrust and lack of confidence in the voting process, and 2) to facilitate vote fraud.

Touch-screen machines were demanded by Democrats after they were unable to make paper ballots in Florida indicate a win for Gore. No matter how many ways they tried to see "bulging" , "hanging", or "pregnant" chads, it didn't work. But the touch-screens are too accurate, and too difficult for Democrats to hack, so they are claiming the opposite in order to get rid of them.

Why are Democrats so eager to make vote fraud easier?

doctorfixit wrote the following post at 04/29/2008 5:05 PM:

Touch-screen machines were demanded by Democrats after they were unable to make paper ballots in Florida indicate a win for Gore. No matter how many ways they tried to see "bulging" , "hanging", or "pregnant" chads, it didn't work. But the touch-screens are too accurate, and too difficult for Democrats to hack, so they are claiming the opposite in order to get rid of them.

Why are Democrats so eager to make vote fraud easier?

Wrong. There were numerous problems with the 2000 Florida elections. Not the least of which were voter suppression in primarily black districts. Even without the chad problems the election was a statisical tie. The margin of "victory" for Bush was .002%. Under these circumstances the election should have been looked at much more closely and would have been if the Supreme Court would not have intervened in the election.

Here's an exceprt from a Salon.com <link> article about how unrealiable these Diebold machines really are: In July, scientists at Johns Hopkins and Rice found that security in Diebold's voting software fell "far below even the most minimal security standards applicable in other contexts." The report prompted Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich to order a review of the Diebold systems used in his state. Many of the world's most highly regarded computer scientists have called on voting companies to build touch-screen systems that print a paper ballot -- a "paper trail" -- in order to reduce the risk of electronic tampering.

This shows at least a potential for serious voter fraud and elections such as the 2004 Ohio election are highly suspect. Why don't the Republicans demand a paper trail and why do they love these Diebold machines so much. Because they own them and can use them to throw the election.

What's easier: Recruiting thousands of people, making fake IDs for them, having them vote illegally and then making sure that none of them talks about it afterwards or simply changing the numbers on a computer that cannot be audited and has no paper trail?

progressivebulldog:

Most people no longer believe the lies about tax cuts creating more revenue and attacking other countries making us safer so voter suppression is all the Republicans have left.

Never understood the need to pretend to know what "most people believe" when making a point of individual personal opinion.

Hellzapoppin:

progressivebulldog:

Most people no longer believe the lies about tax cuts creating more revenue and attacking other countries making us safer so voter suppression is all the Republicans have left.

Never understood the need to pretend to know what "most people believe" when making a point of individual personal opinion.

Why don't you try to dispute my main point? Is it because you can't?

progressivebulldog:

Why don't you try to dispute my main point? Is it because you can't?

Why would I, when my dispute was with your pretending to speak for others?

No, this is not to keep the poor voters from voting. This is the first step to have you all going around with an ID card.

I live in a country that requires you to carry an ID all times and you do not have the ID you face a 1000 dollars fine. I am going to court on the 6/5 and for sure I will be fined.

Good luck Americans with your new ID card that I call a dog tag

Anteo

Hellzapoppin:

progressivebulldog:

Why don't you try to dispute my main point? Is it because you can't?

Why would I, when my dispute was with your pretending to speak for others?

So you agree with me otherwise then?

Progressivebulldog is reaping what the left-wing has sewn.

The left cried for e-voting after 2000. Now they have it, now they hate it and find a conspiracy around every corner.

The left complains about how elections are run in the inner-cities but county election bureaus and polling place volunteers are, by definition, local. So if the polling places are mismanaged in predominately Democrat neighborhoods who is responsible? Progressivebulldog instinctively turns to Diebold and Republicans. Find a new playbook please.

sorians:

Progressivebulldog is reaping what the left-wing has sewn.

The left cried for e-voting after 2000. Now they have it, now they hate it and find a conspiracy around every corner.

The left complains about how elections are run in the inner-cities but county election bureaus and polling place volunteers are, by definition, local. So if the polling places are mismanaged in predominately Democrat neighborhoods who is responsible? Progressivebulldog instinctively turns to Diebold and Republicans. Find a new playbook please.

Fact: In Ohio in 2004 voting machines are provided by the state and there were far less than needed in poor neighborhoods then in wealthy ones. In mostly Democratic neighborhoods people had to wait for up to 12 hours to vote while there was no wait in mostly Republican neighborhoods. In Franklin county alone 125 machines that could have been used were never delivered. Pre-election reports in these districts showed at least 5000 machines were needed but less than 3000 were delivered.

Fact: 35,000 new voters in targeted areas chosen by zip code (84% black and thus likely Democrats) were sent registered letters by the Republican party. If the voters refused to sign for them or were present when the letters were delivered fthey were challenged by Republicans in a techniques known as "caging."

Fact: An Ohio recount of poorer districts which should have been open to public scrutiny was done in secret. The reason given was a supposed terrorist threat that was a "10 on scale of 1 to 10." The FBI did give warning of any terrorist threat The "threat" appears to have been a means to keep the public from viewing the proceedings. Keeping the prooceedings private is a clear violation of Ohio law which calls such private counts a "clear case of voter fraud."

Fact: A 2005 Congressional report on the 2004 election stated that there were ''massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio.'' The problems, the report concludes, were ''caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.''

Republicans have been trying to supress votes by the poor for years and this law is nothing but a transparent attempt to limit voting by the poor to increase Republican chances.

Corrections:

I wrote: If the voters refused to sign for them or were present when the letters were delivered fthey were challenged.

I should have wrote:If the voters refused to sign for them or were not present when the letters were delivered fthey were challenged.

I wrote: The FBI did give warning of any terrorist threat

I should have wrote: The FBI did not give warning of any terrorist threat.