[Summit] voter ID law

Sat Oct 6 19:14:29 UTC 2012

A purple thumb works better than ID which can be faked. Voter registration
is designed to suppress turnout, otherwise you could register on election
day.  Which the republicans are working to end everywhere it still exists.
greg

From:  Jim Kelley <jim-kelley2 at cox.net>
Date:  Sat, 6 Oct 2012 13:53:14 -0400
To:  'Bob Trudeau' <bobtrudeau at cox.net>, Summit Neighborhood
<summit at sna.providence.ri.us>
Subject:  Re: [Summit] voter ID law

I am not advocating a National ID [³where are your papers²] by any stretch
of the imagination; I am a libertarian.  Please defend this however relative
to the value of Integrity, trust and reliance on election results
(particularly RI) with no cost to the entitled electorate: ³which in my view
are designed to suppress voting opportunities, not guarantee them.  The
issue at hand is the specific RI Law. ³

From: Bob Trudeau [mailto:bobtrudeau at cox.net]
Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2012 1:37 PM
To: Jim Kelley; Summit Neighborhood
Subject: Re: [Summit] voter ID law

Neighbors: 

A picture ID at voting is not a bad thing -- but read on.  My personal
experience with this (as an observer) was in Costa Rica where there is a
national voter registry (or was when I studied it some years ago), and where
everyone is issued a national ID card more or less at birth, and where
everyone is automatically registered as a voter the day they turn 18 (based
on the registering of the birth).  In short, a goal of the national ID card
was to guarantee that everyone who is a citizen can vote.  Each citizen is
automatically registered -- no need for a separate process.  I favor a
national picture ID system -- it surely can be done with computers: when you
get your social security card, you are entered in the computer to become
registered on your 18th birthday.

So the question is not simply one of picture ID, but the intention, vis a
vis voting, of people supporting these current laws, which in my view are
designed to suppress voting opportunities, not guarantee them.    The issue
at hand is the specific RI Law -- which I urge you to help repeal.  Sign the
petition circulating via Jim Barfoot's email.

Bob T

On Oct 6, 2012, at 12:43 PM, Jim Kelley wrote:

Jim,

You may call voter identification "suppression"; but, I call it insurance of
the integrity of a very important responsibility, as does the General
Assembly‹ID is free and easily obtainable. Is ensuring a voting system of
integrity more important than insuring identification for other purposes
such as driver¹s licenses, benefits, and a multitude of other situations?
Isn't it very important to ensure that those voters who determine elections
(in our small voting districts) truly are affected by the votes they cast?
Would you rather have purple figure tips (just kidding)?

Per the PolitiFact "Truth-O-Meter (which has had errors and bias issues):

In the Rhode Island Senate, the bill¹s main sponsor was Sen. Harold Metts,
D-Providence, an African-American. The House version was co-sponsored by
House Speaker Gordon Fox, the first black lawmaker to lead the state lower
chamber, among others.

 Further, the bill got a crucial boost when state Rep. Anastasia Williams,
D-Providence, who is of African -American and Panamanian descent, also
supported it.

 She testified about how she suspected someone had voted in her name in 2006
(no complaint was filed) and how she¹d once seen a man vote twice at her
local polling place.

 Their support came despite aggressive lobbying against the bill by the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the American
Civil Liberties Union, Ocean State Action and the Rhode Island Commission
for Human Rights.

 It passed the House 54 to 21 and the Senate 27 to 6, with five not voting.

Obtaining voter identification is free.

Also, how is this any different from the voter registration and the voter
identification vetting process on candidate nomination forms any different?

How do you feel about the increasing number of absentee (early) ballots that
seem to require reduced validation? Do you have an opinion about the vote in
East Providence decided by one vote although the machines had four different
counts?

-----Original Message-----
From: summit-bounces at sna.providence.ri.us
[mailto:summit-bounces at sna.providence.ri.us] On Behalf Of barfootjim
Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2012 11:56 AM
Cc: Summit Neighborhood e-mail
Subject: Re: [Summit] voter ID law

RI now has in place the first phase of a voter ID law, requiring
voters to show identification at the polls. As of this coming
election, the ID does not have to be a picture ID, and in fact, the
types of ID allowed is a fairly broad range of possible documents. If
you have no such ID, you will have to cast a provisional ballot, then
go to the Board of Canvassers office and provide suitable proof of
who you are. Your vote can then be counted. How, given that it's a
secret ballot, the Board of Canvassers will decide which provisional
ballot is yours, and therefore to be counted, baffles me.

However, the second phase, which is very restrictive, goes into
effect in 2014.

If you believe, as I do, that voter ID laws are essentially a new
form of voter suppression, being sold as a way to end non-existent
voter fraud, you may want to register your opposition by means of a
petition to repeal RI Voter ID Law. It currently has almost 2,000
signatures on it. The petition, to The Rhode Island State House, The
Rhode Island State Senate, and Governor Lincoln Chafee, says:

"The undersigned urge the RI State legislature and the Governor to
vote to repeal the state's discriminatory Voter ID law."

The group that started the petition plans to deliver it to Governor
Chafee this Wednesday, October 10th.

To sign this petition,
  Click here:

http://signon.org/sign/reverse-the-ri-voter?source=c.em.mt&r_by=43840

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