Should people be required to show photo ID before voting?

Nystyle709 wrote:It shouldn't be....but if people weren't so lackadaisical and actually had photo identification, this wouldn't be a "problem" or issue to exploit. I don't see any reason why you are a grown adult in this country and you have ZERO photo identification at all. None, nothing whatsoever. Unless you aren't a legal citizen.

Supernova wrote:

What about the millions of senior citizens who no longer have drivers licenses or passports and those were their only photo IDs?

Go get a state identification card. Even freaking BJ's gives you a photo ID. You shouldn't be walking around with NOTHING to positively identify yourself. It's asinine.

That's who this is really targeting, because the elderly always vote and this paralyzes them in that right. It takes more proofs of who you are and where you live to get a plain ID card than a license or permit but in getting those you have to hope you get enough questions right to pass the exam, and if you're a person who chokes on exams, then you're screwed, for some people it is a real catch 22.

Nystyle709 wrote:

If you can get a driver's license or a passport, you can get a state ID. No it does not take more to get a state identification card. It's the same requirement sans a driver's exam. A birth certificate and proof of address. How hard is that?

Supernova wrote:
If you had to talk to the people at our courthouse you wouldn't have to ask how hard it is. My mother gave up driving a long time ago and has been trying to get an ID card and needs 4 proofs of ID AND a bill with her name on it instead of my dad's to prove she lives at the house she's been living in for the past 35 years and everybody here knows her and who she is and where she is.

Nystyle709 wrote:NY requires more than one documentation to get one too. However, it wasn't a problem for me or anybody else because I'm a legal citizen. The reason why they require more than one proof of documentation TO get any state issued I.D. is to stop illegal aliens from getting one (and some still do). But that's another issue. The people still around with no birth certificate....that's understandable in this day and age if you're 105. But if you've EVER had a driver's license or you've EVER had a passport, don't sit up here and tell me that it's sooooo impossible for you to obtain one now. And yes, the simple fact that some people don't have anything is attributed to laziness. My great grandmother never drove a day in her life, but she had state ID. My elderly aunt stop driving 15 years ago....simply because she doesn't feel comfortable driving on the road anymore after getting into a bad car accident, but she STILL has a driver's license. It's called renewal. When I moved to SC, I traded my NY driver's license for that one. When I moved back to NY, I traded my SC driver's license for a NY one. So do many people I know. You as an adult shouldn't be lackadaisical and keep up your documents and don't let them expire. If people did that, this wouldn't be an issue to exploit. That's how they're able to come up with these BS voter fraud laws. If BJ's can give you a photo ID, don't tell me you can't obtain anything. There are programs that assist the elderly with everything, from shopping to getting them to doctor's appointment to getting their medicine to SS benefits to housing etc. But I'm supposed to believe that it's just IMPOSSIBLE for them to get a form of photo identification? LOL.

Supernova wrote: For some people it is. What about when you have a birth certificate but it's so old and brittle it's about impossible to read, and they won't take a copy of it, and if they can't read it themselves then they won't issue an ID? Because that's what some people ARE having to put up with right now. The whole thing seems more like a 'screw you, elderly, we're taking one step closer to proving you don't count as people' than 'keep the immigrants from voting fraudulently'.

Shale wrote:

It is easy to think things are easy when you were born two or three decades ago and in effect have little history.

But for those born 7, 8 or 9 decades ago, papers, if they existed at all are just about buried. The rural south didn't even record many ppls' birth - an entry in the family Bible was it and that may have burned in some house fire decades ago. Birth certificates that many ppl have from those past decades are not considered certified copies by today's standards which all got extremely stringent in the past decade since 09-11-01.

Personally, I was lucky to have gotten a passport in the '70s when it took very little ID to secure it in New Orleans. That became my base document for getting others since. IDK if I needed a birth certificate then or just a license (which did not have a foto on it) and a light bill from my address.

Supernova wrote:

For some people it is. What about when you have a birth certificate but it's so old and brittle it's about impossible to read, and they won't take a copy of it, and if they can't read it themselves then they won't issue an ID? Because that's what some people ARE having to put up with right now. The whole thing seems more like a 'screw you, elderly, we're taking one step closer to proving you don't count as people' than 'keep the immigrants from voting fraudulently'.

Supernova wrote:

Exactly, this is what some people need to realize instead of this whole 'well *I* don't have any trouble with it so nobody else should either' mentality or 'well this is how it happens where I live and it's easy so it's the same everywhere'.