Voter I.D. laws are a ploy by Republicans to defraud the system

Voter suppression efforts have Democrats across the nation biting their nails as a ticking clock draws closer to election time.

Recent state laws approved in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Arizona, Texas and South Carolina require residents to provide a valid identification card in order to register to vote. According to New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, these new rules will affect more than five million people.

That’s five million people who may not be able to vote in the November election because they do not have an I.D. card. This number consists primarily of minorities, young, elderly, poor and — here’s the kicker — Democrats. Can we spell “ploy”?

According to numerous articles in papers across the nation, this ploy has been in the works since before President Barack Obama was elected in 2008. Who’s leading the charge? Republican-dominated state legislatures.

There are three sides to this debate: Those who agree with Republicans and feel the I.D. requirement is a failsafe to deter voter fraud; those who feel this is just a tactic to reduce Democratic voter turnout; and those who just don’t give a rat’s ass.

Personally, I’m one of those who thinks on the one hand, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but on the other hand, even though voter fraud hasn’t been a critical issue yet, it will be the next debacle we face as a nation.

Most courts that have been urged to prevent or delay the new rules seem to agree with those who are afraid of voter fraud.

One state court, in Ohio, has determined it to be too close to the election to actually implement such a law and has ruled it be postponed until after Jan. 1.

That’s a court thinking of the people, if you ask me. After talking with MHCC’s political science guru, Janet Campbell, this ruling is the only one that makes any sense during such a tense election year. Then again, I’m a Democrat.

When I asked my friend, a Republican, if she thought the ruling was the only wise choice, she responded with a smirk and said, either way it won’t make a difference because the Republican legislatures have already won and, of course, dissuaded voter turnout.

I listed six states where laws have been passed and only one of the six was blocked (temporarily). That means that the poor, elderly, young and Democrats who cannot afford to purchase a copy of their birth certificate or other legal document required to get an I.D. will not be able to vote in this year’s election. Now who’s trying to defraud the voting system?

Republicans say these requirements are not placing any burden on the people in question, because getting an I.D. is free, or else it would violate our constitutional rights. Republicans aren’t taking into consideration the cost and time it takes to get together all of the legal documents necessary for getting a valid I.D.

All in all, I agree with those smart people who say “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” There are so many other things a legislature can focus their “pre-emptive” sights on, such as, let’s say, the damn unemployment rates.

After a year in which Republican governors and Republican-led state legislatures passed an unprecedented flurry of voter legislation, opponents of the laws have had a string of successes in court this fall. Courts have delayed rulings on strict photo ID laws in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Texas and South Carolina until after the election, or the laws have been blocked until further notice. After Ohio officials passed a law slashing the number of early voting days in Ohio, a judge restored the three voting days the weekend before they began.