CBS reports from Democrat-run Illinois:
WELCOME to readers of Instapundit, the internet's blog of record, and also to readers of Hogewash.
UPDATE: From the comments, Portland, Oregon, a trendy liberal city, requires a photo ID to buy spray paint. Still more racism?
CHICAGO (CBS) – A new state law requires those who buy drain cleaners and other caustic substances to provide photo identification and sign a log.Republican efforts to require photo ID for voting are labeled as a return to the racist "Jim Crow" era (examples are here, here, and here) and provoke outrage. However, don't minorities, the poor, and the elderly need to buy Drano too? Where is the outrage?
WELCOME to readers of Instapundit, the internet's blog of record, and also to readers of Hogewash.
UPDATE: From the comments, Portland, Oregon, a trendy liberal city, requires a photo ID to buy spray paint. Still more racism?
10 comments:
This is the Hope&Change! that America voted for.
Good thing we're living in a post-racial society.
The other day in Safeway, I got carded buying Robitussin. Not sure if it's the alcohol content or if it's a meth precursor. Pretty strange in any case that the nanny state will protect us in every way except assuring that our elections are clean. Hmm.
When I tried to buy muriatic acid at Walmart the clerk acted as if I had asked for the Home Meth Lab Department. I bought it at the local hardware without any problem.
Interesting, but ... there is voter fraud, but IDs for voting will stop far more people from voting, most of those theoretically Democrat voters, than it will prevent voter fraud [lot of "red necks," too]. I'm still for it to maintain the legitimacy of the election, but I see why devoted Democrats are not.
The whole race argument against requiring voters to prove their identity at the polls is a bald-faced lie. It is such a whopper that I'm actually kind of shocked that they would attempt to float it in the first place. They are usually better at making their lies at least plausible. I guess when they can't come up with a lie that sounds feasible, they fall back on ludicrous fantasies about conspiracies to disenfranchise citizens based on their skin color. Driver's licenses and state issued ID cards for non-drivers are not withheld from anyone on the basis of race. Neither is there any demonstrated reason to believe that possessing one of these is otherwise limited Americans of European descent. This demonstrates just how ridiculous their argument that there is racism lurking somewhere is.
If there were a plan to prevent people from voting on the basis of race, making them bring their driver's licenses to the polls would be just about the worst way to go about it.
The reason why the left is terrified of laws that require voters to prove their identity is that this would prevent voter fraud. The very purpose behind the these laws is the reason the left hates them. But they can't say that naturally, and so they scrambled to come up with some other argument against them that might get traction with the public. It is a testament to their idiocy that they only thing they could come up with was cries of "racism!"
Making voters prove who they are prevents leftist political operatives from voting multiple times under different names at different polling locations, in order to skew the election. In every single election dead people from local cemeteries manage to cast votes from beyond the grave. When an election is a blowout for one party or the other, these tactics are of little impact. But when an election is close, these schemes can mean the difference between the leftist candidate winning or not. There is good reason to believe that this is precisely how Al Franken became a senator.
Making voters prove their identity also prevents illegal aliens and convicted felons from voting. This too is something that the left is very keen on seeing happen.
In short, the laws to prevent voter fraud by requiring that citizens prove their identity are hated and opposed by the left precisely because they will have the effect they are intended to. Our elections will be clean. Voters will vote, once, in their own name. Non-citizens and felons will not be voting, and leftist operatives won't be casting votes in the names of the deceased.
If IDs are free and easily obtainable (as I understand they will be in SC), will it really have a noticeable impact on legitimate voters? I have a hard time believing that there are many people that don't already have an ID, and care enough to take the time and effort to show up at the polls, but for whom the additional time and effort to get a free ID is just enough to make them give up.
Seems to me like the two classes of voters who will be dissuaded will be (1) those who don't actually exist and (2) the street dweller who will happily stand in line and place whatever vote is requested for the $5 he is promised afterward, but might not have the capacity for planning or delayed gratification to get an ID in advance for that.
To fight graffiti Portland requires ID to buy spray paint.
More racist?
You already have to show a photo ID to buy a can of compressed air. I don't see why something as scared as voting should have any less a requirement than purchasing these mundane items.
There are much more pertinent reasons to assume laws targeting persons buying drain cleaner are racially motivated.
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