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Voter ID Rant

nullLate yesterday, I got a text seeking submission for a con essay on voter ID. Below you will see my working notes and my 4th rough draft of my con essay on voter ID. I am open to any and all comments and suggestions. I thank my FB friends for their time in providig feedback to me on the essay.

Cons against Voter ID

14th amendment violation (http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0383_0663_ZO.html )
March 24, 1966 decision of the SCOTUS in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections
“We conclude that a State violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment whenever it makes the affluence of the voter or payment of any fee an electoral standard.”


2003 Federal Voting Standards and Procedures Act requires states to streamline registration, voting, and other election procedures.

Read more: U.S. Voting Rights http://www.infoplease.com/timelines/voting.html#ixzz1PU0wGD2A


Violaion of Federal elections
24th Amendment
1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
(http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am24.html)

http://www.demos.org/pubs/Analysis.pdf
http://www.brennancenter.org/blog/archives/debunking_misinformation_on_photo_id/


Voter ID
Voter ID legislation in Mississippi should be decided based on sense and dollars. Off the bat, Voter ID amounts to a 21st Century poll tax. Those who do not have the documents required to obtained the ID allowed for voting will have to spend money to get the documents. Purchasing documents to get ID to vote is paying to vote. The 14th and 24th amendments address the matter of having to pay to vote. The Surpreme Court decision in the case of Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections closed the loophole in regards to poll taxes for local and state elections in 1966. Current Voter ID laws in other states setup provisional ballots which require the voters to show proof of ID within two days of voting. The use of provisional ballots in elections violates the Federal Voting Standards and Procedures Act of 2003; which requires states to streamline registration, voting,and other election procedures. Finally at a time when the state of Mississippi , which still has less than 3 million residents, needs to funnel all monies into job training and education, Voter ID should not be at the top of the list to be funded. The amount of voter ID fraud in the United States is so low that there has been no successful study of the exact amount of fraud. Should Mississippi spend money on something that is not an issue? It will not be inexpensive to implement Voter ID in any state that wishes to avoid the unconstituional defacto “poll tax” . States would have to secure the required documents for those who need to have an accepted form of ID to vote. Voter ID does not have enough logic(sense) to warrant the investment of the dollars of Mississippians.


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