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• Friday, September 15, 2006 10:05 AM

  IDs and Control

  If it is an economic burden to show an ID card for identification to vote, then where is the similar outrage over people having to produce photo IDs or driver's license cards to cash checks or make credit card purchases in some areas? Not everyone has a Driver's license and so they settle for the next best thing - a photo ID from the state.

  If you could use a voting card for the same purpose, that makes the argument of burden pretty shallow. And as far as absentee ballots go - a photcopy or fax of your card with the application (with a magic voting number to make it unique) would pretty much shut down the fraud angle - I mean the point of this is to have a unique number on your ID card that would identify YOU as a unique individual (and NOT a social security number)

  I could see such a card used to verify a lot of things if people were clever - even to the point of being used as a tax ID to process an imediate fraud check for employers trying to hire people with other false ID's (but that is probably too clever)

  When I lived in California, I tried to show my Driver's License to a poll worker and was told in no uncertain terms that it was not allowed for them to verify my identity with it. The local radio station actually registered all the animals at the Zoo to show how easy it was to defraud the system. Voting may be a right, but it should also be subject to laws - and identification should be a large part of it.

  I just find it strange that the same people that are indignant over voting machine potential scandals have less concern over the other parts of the voting process - that being access to the machines to vote. If you are scared of abuse on one level - why not be concerned over making all of the process secure?

  —Ironclad Read Ironclad's other letters
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