Monday, September 12, 2011
Politics Jim Cooper and Dick Durbin Rap Voter ID and ALEC
Posted by Jonathan Meador on Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 4:56 PM
This morning, Nashville Rep. Jim Cooper hosted a "reporter's round table" at the Loew's Hotel alongside Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin that covered a bevy of topics, including the ongoing Gibson Guitar raid saga, a proposed national Internet sales tax and the onerous implications of Tennessee's new voter ID laws.
As chair of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, Durbin called a hearing in Washington last week to examine the recent rash of state laws limiting voter enfranchisement — laws enacted ostensibly to combat the hackneyed bogeyman that is voter fraud. Durbin's appearance in Nashville comes on the heels of a letter he sent to Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on Sept. 8 in which the Illinois Democrat took to task the state's new voter ID law that require would-be ballot casters to present government-issued identification. Opponents have identified such measures as designed to reduce turnout among minority, young, elderly, disabled, homeless and working class electorates.
At the roundtable, Durbin lambasted the law and compared it to a form of poll tax.
"There ought to be a conscious effort and a dedication of resources to give people an easy way to establish their legality and legitimacy as voters," Durbin said. "If this is a matter of you have to take off work, as I understand it, and spend four hours waiting for photo IDs, I think that kind of gets to the point where it creates a hardship [on people]."
Rep. Cooper echoed the sentiment and expressed concern that the new law, which is slated to go into effect next year, will not only result in widespread disenfranchisement but will upset Tennessee's history of voting equity.
"We are the state that had the Supreme Court case of Baker v. Carr, which established for the first time in American history the 'one person, one vote' principle," Cooper said. "We don't want to amend that and say 'one person if you have a government-issued photo ID.' "
But like other, similar voting restriction bills that have cropped up across the nation, Tennessee's was born in the private sector.
Signed by Haslam on June 13 of this year, the law, Senate Bill 16, was introduced into the Tennessee legislature by Republican State Sen. Bill Ketron. But its inspiration and basic structure were provided by scribes within the American Legislative Exchange Council, aka ALEC, which acts as a kind of model legislation factory for business interests eager to influence state governments and their respective lawmakers.
"They have played a major role [in crafting voter ID legislation]," Durbin says of ALEC. "Of course, their major financiers are the Koch brothers, who come to this conversation with a clear political agenda. And if you look at the money behind ALEC, you'll find that it's the Koch brothers. You'll also find that the voters most affected by these laws tend to vote Democratic. Add 'em up."
There are many similarities between ALEC's voter-ID law template and Ketron's SB 16, and why shouldn't there be? When Ketron isn't moonlighting as a xenophobe, he serves as a member of ALEC's Energy, Environment and Agriculture and Tax and Fiscal Policy task forces. Over the summer, he partied down at ALEC's 2011 annual meeting in New Orleans.
Durbin cited ALEC's father, Paul Weyrich, as the architect of modern voter disenfranchisement. Most certainly, the man who co-founded the Heritage Foundation and coined the phrase "Silent Majority" was no fan of representative democracy:
"I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."
"I disagree with that," Durbin said. "I believe the greatest participation by the electorate leads to the soundest election results and really legitimizes our democracy."
In the meantime, Durbin and Cooper hope to raise enough of a stink before the bill takes effect in January 2012 in the hopes of tweaking it before any constitutional cases arise from its implementation.
However, the Tennessee legislature could just as soon execute Order 66 and be done with it.
Comments (28)
Showing 1-28 of 28
I plan on approaching the polls and refusing to present a photo ID, instead presenting my voter ID card. I will sue the state of Tennessee and the local election commission for refusing to allow me to vote, and I urge my concerned fellow Tennesseans to join me by doing the same and forming a class action lawsuit. Don't view it as throwing away your vote; view it as a principled sacrifice. Besides, your vote doesn't really count until they trash those touchscreens.
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You are a left wing idiot. Durbin comes from the state that coined the phrase, "vote early and often". The law is to prevent voting often. I have no problem proving who I am when I go to the poles. Maybe you have something to hide.
It's always the the democrats who complain about voter fraud and it's always the democrats who get caught with their hand in the ballot box. They must think no one notices. Latest examples are ACORN's voter registration fiascos and Democratic Secretaries of States unable to get absentee ballots to the troops overseas. And how many dead people were caught voting in Memphis?
As a college student in Nashville Tenn in the early 60's it was common knowledge that there was voter fraud involved in important elections in the state of Tenn.. For state wide elections a train was run from Knoxville to Nashville to Memphis on election day with the people on the train voting in each city. It seems that ingleweird wants to return to the corruption of the past. Must be a Democrat. It was the Democrat machine that orchestrated the multiple voting scheme at the time. Also at the time there was no Republican party of note in Tennessee. It was just the pols in power holding on to power.
There have been very, very, very few documented cases of voter fraud over the last twenty years, "common knowledge" or not. And with all the noise about ACORN, not one verifiable instance has been proven where a fake person was registered AND voted. Not one. And it was investigated strenuously by true believers wanting to find something. They found fake registrations because ACORN workers were paid by the registration. That's not really a problem unless Mickey Mouse votes, and that never occurred. And voter ID laws aren't going to prevent fake registrations. It's just more baseless noise from people looking for problems where there really aren't any.
Actually, photo ID to vote and proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote have been in bills introduced in Tennessee every year for as many or almost as many years as I've been moved back to Tennessee (9 years), and in Georgia (where we had a strong push on this) for longer than that -- Georgia passed this before Tennessee did.
The immigration-control movement has pushed these bills for many years. This is the origin of such bills and certain other bills. Lawyers in the immigration-enforcement movement have written a number of bills attributed to ALEC but which predate ALEC involvement. ALEC took up some of this stuff later.
Blah, blah, blah, Acorn, blah, blah, blah, must-be-a-democrat, blah, blah, blah, show-us-zee-papers, blah, blah, blah, you-must-have-something-to-hide, blah. You don't know me. I am completely voting-eligible and as American as baseball and apple pie. Attention conservative agenda champions: your whole argument is moot on the basis of the poll tax. My position is backed by legal precedent. We must stop fueling the fires of Tennessee conservative legislators who have wanton ignorance of and blatant disregard for existing law, including our beloved Constitution. Maybe you think we should devote a chunk of our budget to lawyers to defend the unconstitutionality of our recent batch of nimrod legislation - I don't. Quit defending the TNGOP's red herrings; you're playing right into their hands...
I don't know about you guys, but I pretty much use my driver's license every time I go vote... because I lost that little crappy scrap of paper that stands in for a Voter ID a long time ago. I mean -- can't the Election Commission afford to at least laminate the damn things so they seem like an actual ID card and not a Subway Club card?
"And with all the noise about ACORN, not one verifiable instance has been proven where a fake person was registered AND voted. Not one."
HA! The FINFICALOM Foundation has uncovered numerous instances where false registrations led to voting! They found that ACORN not only signed up dead people and illegals to vote, 33 different species of wild animals were registered and many of these actually voted! In New Hampshire, the Foundation followed the paper trail and found that a Wolverine voted! And there aren't even Wolverines living in New Hampshire! It's the kind of thing that makes you go "hmmmm!" So if ACORN could get wild animals to seemingly vote, even outside of their natural habitat, imagine how many "Juan Sanchez's" are out there voting and helping to tilt the election to our current commie in chief, President Osama?!?!!
Those of the same weak mind as Ingleweird are the reason this law is
so necessary. His threats to filing a lawsuit have their problems, it can't
be done by sitting in the basement Posting all day long! ACORN is among
those with "protected" status at the moment, but I'm sure 2012 will bring
them back in greater force than ever for their Voting stunts with more
money to pass out than ever before!
TN needs same day voter registration. It leads to greater turnout. More voters = more voices being heard. That = good.
@NeverFear:
Your ad hominem attacks have no merit or worth in this discussion. If the state wants to require me to present ID to vote in elections, they need to retroactively reimburse to me (and everyone else) the fee I paid to renew my TN driver's license. Furthermore, they need to cease collecting any fees for state ID. The state cannot have its cake and eat it too.
"I don't know about you guys, but I pretty much use my driver's license every time I go vote... "
And I never have, in 32 years of voting, because I have always had my voter registration card with me.
Since it appears that this legislation is aimed at preventing non-citizens from voting--although I think that's just another a Tea Party lie--could someone explain this contradiction to me? Every time an argument is raised for holding employers accountable for hiring illegal workers, the employers defend themselves by saying they have no way of knowing if the worker's ID or papers are legit. Well, hell. If fake IDs are that prevalent among these illegal workers, how is a picture ID supposed to keep them from voting?
Durban, as usual, doesn't know what he's talking about (he never has - on ANY subject).
This guy does:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/275…
Good Lord Gilbert. Hans von Spakovsky? Really? He's a partisan clown who is more interested in suppressing and making it harder to vote for the poor and indigent to vote, not preventing "vote fraud." And he mentions ACORN, of course, which makes his argument even weaker for two reasons: 1) There still hasn't been one case of a false registration by ACORN leading to a fraudulant vote. Not even one. There were false registrations because workers were paid per registration. The false ones ended up getting thrown out, which leads to 2) Voter fraud laws wouldn't prevent false registrations. It's a specious argument and only shows what people like this are really after, TO SUPPRESS VOTES, per and simple.
http://www.slate.com/id/2174680/
Money quote from article:
"And what was von Spakovsky trying to hide at his hearing? Why is the nation's largest civil rights coalition urging that his confirmation be rejected? Because this man was one of the generals in a years-long campaign to use what we now know to be bogus claims of runaway "vote fraud" in America to suppress minority votes. Von Spakovsky was one of the people who helped melt down and then reshape the Justice Department into an instrument aimed at diminishing voter participation for partisan ends."
Even better: "But even a brief poke at his résumé shows a man who has dedicated his professional career to a single objective: turning a partisan myth about voters who cast multiple ballots under fake names (always for Democrats!) into a national snipe hunt for vote fraud."
And anyone who wants to see a classic beat-down go to YouTube and watch him get questioned by Al Franken in the Senate:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/…
Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School who previously authored a report for the Brennan Center which found no evidence of a national problem of voter impersonation fraud, said von Spakovsky's logic was flawed.
"There's a basic -- and I mean basic -- misconception here," Levitt said. "It's called the correlation-causation fallacy, and anybody who's had statistics for a week can talk to you about it."
Those of the same weak mind as Ingleweird are the reason this law is
so necessary. His threats to filing a lawsuit have their problems, it can't
be done by sitting in the basement Posting all day long! ACORN is among
those with "protected" status at the moment, but I'm sure 2012 will bring
them back in greater force than ever for their Voting stunts with more
money to pass out than ever before!
Well, such laws target several kinds of fraud and unintentional illegal voting. If you do some research, you'll find a number of states have reported unofficial or official counts of voting by noncitizens -- quite a number in a couple of states, such as Colorado.
Some or many of the voting noncitizens -- and remember people can be here legally yet not be U.S. citizens, thus not legally permitted to vote except in some local elections in some immigrant-heavy U.S. towns that allow even illegal aliens to vote in school board elections, for example -- did so in ignorance, so their voting can't really be counted as fraud, though illegal.
One thing to note is that such state laws apply only to state and local elections, not to federal elections, which have no such requirements.
And finally, I would be remiss in not mentioning once again that before Hilda Solis was our Obama-appointed U.S. labor secretary, she told a California meeting of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project that they were all Americans whether they were legalized or not.
What could go wrong?
"If you do some research, you'll find a number of states have reported unofficial or official counts of voting by noncitizens -- quite a number in a couple of states, such as Colorado."
Not enough to make this such a legislative priority of Republicans Donna. This is about making it harder to legally vote, nothing more. Gilbert trotting out Hans von Spakovsky (who points to ACORN as evidence, facts be damned) pretty much proves this.
I don't carry around my voter registration card, because it has my Social Security number on it. I show my driver's license.
If we don't secure the foundation of our system of government, I don't know what you think you have. But even that security can be compromised and bypassed -- by presidential violations of and failures to abide by the Constitution, by presidential abuse of executive orders, and by a Congress asleep at the switch, all of which have contributed to an invasion of our country and a "legal" takeover of the ballot box.
The GOP won't save itself with such laws while serving their corporate masters. It is much too late for that now.
How much does a legal government-issued ID cost? Will they be free to voters, just like voter registration cards are? If not and a legal US citizen voter cannot afford the ID, will one be issued free of charge? Can it all be done via the mail at no cost other than postage? If not, will transportation to the DMV or wherever they're issued be provided? Obviously we're talking about citizens who do not drive. Who will pay for the extra infrastructure to transport and issue the cards for those who cannot pay? Will this be an added cost to taxpayers?
These are valid questions folks and I don't see them addressed by the "voter fraud" crowd arguing for the need for IDs.
"Good Lord Gilbert. Hans von Spakovsky? Really? He's a partisan clown who is more interested in suppressing and making it harder to vote for the poor and indigent to vote, not preventing "vote fraud."
Not on your say so. Or Slate's or Al Franken's say so either.
Especially Franken. Vote fraud is the only reason that wimpy little punk is sitting in the Senate in the first place.
"It's a specious argument and only shows what people like this are really after, TO SUPPRESS VOTES, per and simple"
From the article:
"Numerous studies — including those by the Heritage Foundation, the University of Missouri, the University of Delaware, and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln — have looked at data from many states and several elections and concluded that voter ID does not depress turnout. In fact, the Delaware/Nebraska study said that “concerns about voter-identification laws affecting turnout are much ado about nothing.”
And here some more exerpts of vote fraud shenanigans from the Spavosky acrticle:
"One of the most egregious examples was revealed by a Brooklyn grand jury in 1984, a case the New York Times conveniently ignores whenever it rails against voter ID. The grand jury detailed a widespread conspiracy that operated without detection for 14 years, involving not only impersonation of voters at the polls, but also voting under fictitious names that had been successfully registered. Thousands of fraudulent votes were cast in state and congressional elections."
"One of the reasons that Wisconsin changed its voter-ID law was the finding of a special task force, set up by the Milwaukee Police Department after the 2004 election, that residents from other states had registered and voted. Numerous staffers from out of state working for the John Kerry campaign and the Environmental Victory Campaign, a liberal political-action committee, had illegally registered and voted in Milwaukee"
"The possibility of double voting was illustrated by an incident that was highly embarrassing to the League of Women Voters in the Indiana voter-ID case. A newspaper in Indiana decided to interview a voter who was highlighted by the League as a victim of disenfranchisement in its amicus brief contesting the law. It turned out she had had difficulty voting because she had tried to use a Florida driver’s license to vote in Indiana. Not only did she have a Florida driver’s license, she was also registered to vote in Florida, where she owned a second home. In fact, she had claimed residency in Florida by filing for a homestead exemption on her property taxes."
"More than one study has found individuals who are registered in more than one state. A New York Daily News article in 2004 found 46,000 New Yorkers registered to vote in both New York and Florida. Between 400 and 1,000 had voted in both places in at least one election. (Remember, George W. Bush won Florida in 2000 by a margin of only 537 votes.)"
"There have also been many reported cases of non-citizens’ registering and voting. A federal grand-jury report released in 1984 found large numbers of aliens registered to vote in Chicago. The U.S. attorney estimated that at least 80,000 illegal aliens were registered, and dozens were indicted and convicted for registering and voting."
"Readers may remember that a California congressional election was almost overturned in 1996 because of illegal voting by non-citizens. Loretta Sanchez beat incumbent U.S. Rep. Bob Dornan by a mere 979 votes. The election was investigated by a House committee that found “clear and convincing” evidence of 624 invalid votes by non-citizens and “circumstantial” evidence of another 196 non-citizens’ voting. This election might have been stolen by illegal voting (and it probably was, since the House investigation compared the voter list only to INS records, which do not contain information on illegal aliens who have not been detained)."
Gilbert, Spakovsky has not demonstrated "widespread fraud" as he alleges. What he has done is done a selective study where he has gathered all the instances, over a period of years, and laid them out in one study to make it appear that it happens all the time. He doesn't even give any background at all in most of them or what the final result was. He simply has not made the case that this a problem on the magnitude of the attention it's getting and seems to be taylored to make it harder for people without photo id's to vote.
And prove your claim that Franken won because of vote fraud. It seems like that would have been the perfect opportunity for "vote fraud expert" Hans von Spakovsky to point it out, when Franken was grilling him.
With the voter ID bill and many other efforts to interfere with our voting rights, the current stool sample of Republicans, in Tennessee and elsewhere, make clear that they do not believe in the consent of the governed. Thus, they are unAmerican. They do believe that "money talks", which is why all of them wear "bought and paid for" tattoos just above their frat-boy butt-cracks. (I think that's part of their initiation ceremony.) Except, perhaps, for Rep. Julia "Wanna see my tits!" Hurley (R-Hooters). Her tattoo can be found between her other assets. Just ask her -- she'd be happy to show you.
In Tennessee, more citizens self-identify as Democrats than Republicans (between 5-8%, depending on the opinion polls cited.) However, our elections in recent years have turned out to suggest exactly the opposite. The TN Voter Confidence Act was intended to address the real problem that is destroying our nation's fabric (unverifiable voting machine-enabled election fraud). The Republicans were for that bill (all but two of 'em) until they took control of our legislature in 2008 -- then ALL of them were against it.
Two days after taking control of our legislature in ways that still puzzle political scientists nationwide, the TN/RICOs announced that repealing that good government bill (which would have made our elections cheaper, faster AND verifiable) was one of their three main priorities. It took them three years to kill democracy but they finally succeeded. Woe be to the rest of us, including formerly moderate and patriotic TN Republicans like the ones who initiated Baker v. Carr and who voted for women's suffrage back in the day. Those real Republicans are as disgusted with these flying monkeys as are the rest of us.
One of the major tapeworms in the current TN/RICO stool sample is Bill "Strange Fruit" Ketron (R-Auschwitz). There is not a single anti-democratic, unAmerican legislative piece of stool sample that Ketron, a notorious hairspray-huffer, would refuse to sponsor. I would say "throw the bums out" at the next election, but they've pretty much removed that option from us. Like our loudest neo(con)anderthal voices here, they are too cowardly to face the TN voters on a level and honest playing field. When the fit finally hits the shan, they will have only themselves to thank. For a foreshadowing, see:
http://www.americanheritage.com/content/ba…
The past is prologue ....
" He simply has not made the case that this a problem on the magnitude of the attention it's getting and seems to be taylored to make it harder for people without photo id's to vote. "
Says you.
Your side is the one with the specious arguments against it. The "poll tax" meme has already been laughed out of court, as has the "civil rights violation" meme.
And there is no proof that vote turnout has been surpressed in places where it's been enacted either.
Vote fraud has been in the Democratic party' DNA for it's entire existence. Boss Tweed, the Chicago machine, etc. They have always opposed any measure that would strengthen the capability of screening out people ineligble to vote. This is merely more of the same.
In short, the liberal arguements against it are just shrill squealing.
But then, shrill squealing, is ALL that liberalism has ever been from the get go.
What I get out of all this is that you need no I.D. to get on welfare. Evidently all you have to do is show up and tell whomever that you're poor and need money. America, what a country! No wonder ten percent of Mexico is living here. But we don't have to let them vote.
And now for some actual facts. In order to qualify for food stamps, the Tennessee Department of Human Services website states, "To be eligible, all food stamp household members must have a social security number or proof of having applied for one."
In order to participate in Families First (Tennessee's welfare program), the DHS website states that eligibility will be determined based on, among other things, "All members of the AU [assistance unit] are citizens or qualified aliens and have provided a Social Security Number."
I wont get to vote in Tn. in 2012 because I have no picture on my drivers license, I have to have a birth certificate for proof, I cant find mine, dont think i ever had a state issued one,i was borned at home not a hospital 75 years ago. I have been voting over 50 years, now those Republicans have blocked me from my most basic right, what kind of a country have we got now anyway? An Oligarky, ruled bu the rich. They dont want us old folfs to vote against those who want to kill social security thats the whole reason for this I D law.
